This time of year is the sweet spot for conveniently
sketching colorful skyscapitos: Sunrise is late enough that I can easily
catch it before breakfast (sometimes even after); sunset is early enough that
it doesn’t interfere with dinner prep. And despite quite a bit of
rain, we’ve had some particularly stunning sunsets this month.
Another sketcher had commented on how disappointing her “feeble attempt” is at trying to capture the drama of sunrise. I certainly concur every time I attempt these sketches – it’s hubris, really, for mere mortals to think we can somehow emulate the splendor of nature. But it’s also human nature (or artist’s nature?) to try anyway.
Beautiful series, Tina. Like an album of songs. I believe that sketching nature, feebly or not, is expressing my awe before beauty. -Roy
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely -- attempting to sketch, even if unsuccessful, is an expression of appreciation!
DeleteThese sketches look to me like they would capture the memory of a specific sky scene. Great reportage! Do you activate these pencils with your spritz method? I am deciding that I like the skyscapito pencil attempts better than my watercolor attempts. But watercolor is faster. Anne HwH
ReplyDeleteI activate only with a fairly dry waterbrush. I have been using a white Uglybook for skyscapitos, and the paper won't take spritzed activation. Even the dryish waterbrush causes some buckling. I find watercolor pencils to be much faster than watercolor paints because I don't have to mix colors. I just grab the pencil colors I want and blend on the page. I can activate later at my leisure, even if the colors have changed by then (long gone, usually ;-) ).
DeleteThe watercolor pencils really seem to work well for these. You get fairly rich colors and they blend just enough. I'm glad the sunrise timing is working for you.
ReplyDelete