Over-Analyzing at U Village

7/13/23 University Village

It was a gorgeous, sunny afternoon to get together with friends for a little sketching at U Village. I always enjoy the view of the many umbrella’d tables there, but I had a new challenge that day – I wanted to use watercolors.

The umbrellas actually were white, which made it easier to leave them as negative spaces and paint the foliage around them. The tricky part was the building in the background. Mixing a gray from the primary triad I was using, I decided to paint the shaded side of the building as a solid, undetailed shape, but I think it dominates the composition too strongly. I’m pleased, though, that the only time I used the mixing tray was for that gray. All other colors were mixed directly on the paper.

After moving away from Seattle a couple of years ago, Carol (left of me)
was in town for SketcherFest. It was fun catching up while we all sketched.

It was interesting that I received a number of nice comments on social media about this sketch. Although I appreciate the comments, and I guess the result is OK, it somehow doesn’t feel like “me.” It feels the way a workshop exercise feels – like I’m trying out an instructor’s technique or something I read about in a book. Maybe it just means I haven’t embraced watercolors yet, especially on location. Or maybe I’m just too analytical and process-oriented for my own good.