Friday, December 22, 2023

The Skyscapito Sweet Spot


 


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.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful series, Tina. Like an album of songs. I believe that sketching nature, feebly or not, is expressing my awe before beauty. -Roy

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    1. Absolutely -- attempting to sketch, even if unsuccessful, is an expression of appreciation!

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  2. These 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

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    Replies
    1. I 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 ;-) ).

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  3. The 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.

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