First Fog

1/1/24 From the bedroom window

The first day of the fresh year dawned overcast, but after a short while, a heavy fog came through. The temperature was 36. I stayed cozy and sketched this roofline view from our bedroom window.

Technical notes: I typically use graphite pencils to sketch fog, but I’ve been having so much fun with ArtGraf water-soluble graphite lately that it was a natural to try on a fogscape. It takes very little effort to get varying degrees of value even with a waterbrush.

Ever since the 30x30 Direct Watercolor challenge last summer, I haven’t necessarily avoided all under-drawing lines when I use paint or other wet media, but I’ve been pushing myself to use as few as possible. I almost always need some kind of under-drawing with architectural lines because I rarely get the angles right on the first try (the hardest part is showing the very subtle angle change between the Dutch gable and the rest of the roof  – and Seattle has so many of these). But I’ve never blocked in trees and other organic parts, even before the challenge. Just for fun, I took a snapshot of my under-drawing just before I started “painting” with graphite. (Sorry the lines are so pale – I used an H pencil.) I’d like to get to the point where I need even fewer lines than this.

Under-drawing in H graphite