Thursday, July 21, 2011

Early Morning Sketching

7-17-11, Wooded Area (nature sketching)
©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, 7-17-11 Nature Sketching (Wooded Area). Ink and watercolor in large watercolor moleskine.

We are in the middle of a heatwave here in New England. This makes life very uncomfortable, especially since a lot of homes don't have central air conditioning. I have been holed up indoors with the window a/c running or even going to the mall or the library to take advantage of their a/c. I am not particularly interested in going outside at all and nature sketching feels like an extreme sport, but I did manage to get outdoors early in the morning last weekend. At 6:30 am it was getting hot already, and the dew had even dried from the grass!

I normally don't sketch so early in the morning, but I must say that I liked it. There were no cars on the highway to make extra noise in the distance and all I could hear were the birds and the flies buzzing around. The birds were so loud I thought I was in an aviary, but unfortunately I didn't spot any. I set up my little stool near a section of woods where a sort of path has been cleared. The light created a nice dappling effect. I didn't set out to draw a scene exactly like what I was viewing, but I wanted to pick up on some of the details and try to capture the shapes and textures. Some things I noticed were the pine and maple saplings, lots of old leaves from last fall, broken twigs and small pieces of rotten wood. Little bits of blue sky were peeking out from behind the trees in the distance. Thankfully the mosquitoes weren't bothersome even though it was almost completely windless.

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad you could get out early to do some sketching. The weather sounds exhausting; out on the west coast, we haven't really had summer yet.

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  2. Morning is wonderful time - especially when the day is promising to be hard one - because of weather or other things! I enjoyed your sketch very much - both lines and spots of color - thanks for sharing!

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  3. It's difficult to imagine your hot weather while we're still in the grip of winter Carolyn, but I know exactly what you mean about sketching in the heat! and you've done a lovely job, regardless, love the pathway and all the leaves, great sketch!

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  4. LOVELY, Carolyn! Hot here, too, so I fully understand early morning sketching...

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