50 Percent

9/28/16 water-soluble colored pencils, inks

I’ve sketched this particular stand of maples at Green Lake many times in the fall. Who could resist the wild variety of colors? Some trees are nearly all red and orange, while others are still mostly green. The side that faces the water (as seen in a sketch from two years ago) as well as the sun for most of the day usually has more color in general, but there’s still such a range of hues.

I just went through the sketches I’ve done of these same trees in previous years to compare the color changes, and the one I did on Oct. 14, 2013, is probably the closest to this one – yet that was three weeks later in the year than now. A month earlier that year, the tops were barely kissed with color.

This, by the way, is the first sketch I’ve attempted of these maples using water-soluble colored pencils instead of watercolor. It probably took me about 50 percent longer than it usually takes, but I like it at least 50 percent better – both the process and the result. I love the texture I can get with pencils that I don’t know how to get with watercolors, and I enjoy building both the hues and the values slowly and incrementally rather than planning the glazes and washes.