Catching Color as Fast as I Can

 

10/1/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Although many trees are still just beginning to turn, I have a sense of urgency as I always do at this time of year: We were treated to some lovely fall and even summerish days, but rain is now upon us, and it may never stop (or it always feels that way). I’ve been sketching as fast as I can.

Color and technical notes: The dark green I had been using (seen in the Oct. 1 sketch at right) is too cool, so beginning with the Oct. 2 sketch (below), I switched to the slightly warmer Derwent Inktense Ionian Green (1320). It’s a useful green that works with both the shaded side of deciduous trees as well as Pacific Northwest evergreens.

10/2/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

A favorite maple on my walking route is the one I sketched on Oct. 6, below (when I sketched it on Halloween a few years ago, it was the brilliant red one in the distance). With optical color mixing on my mind, I very consciously resisted my usual method of generously spritzing with water to bring out the brilliant hues. Instead, I used a dry-ish waterbrush to activate the color selectively, which makes the optical mixing more apparent. It also shows the tree’s form better; the Oct. 2 tree turned into a flat pool of blended color.

10/6/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

10/7/23 Green Lake neighborhood

The next day (Oct. 7 at right) at Green Lake gave me an opportunity to experiment with a more abstract color technique. The orange, yellow and green belong to the trees in the background behind the trunk and branches I used to frame that color (I think I should have pushed that background color even further back). The dark purple splatters are foliage on the foreground tree.