A Walking Leaf-Peeping Tour

 

9/13/23 Japanese maple, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Now that I’m doing so much more of my urban sketching at locations I get to by foot, my annual leaf-peeping tour has become a walking tour (at least partly). Although I’m dazzled by trees at their peak of color, I especially enjoy catching trees at this early stage when the reds and oranges pop against still mostly green foliage.

With that in mind, I swapped out my default dark green (Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Dark Phthalocyanine Green 719), which I was still using in the Sept. 13 sketch (at left), for a much cooler dark green (Derwent Inktense Iron Green 1310) used in the other three. It’s a lovely cool green for Pacific Northwest firs, but possibly too cool as a shadow color for deciduous trees. I really liked it, though, as the green in the secondary triad I used in Columbia City last week. Mixed with dark violet, it’s a lively shade color.

9/18/23 Green Lake neighborhood

9/19/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

9/21/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

The current fall palette