Apres le pluie

I was just visiting another blog, "Paris Through My Lens," and now I'm thinking in a French accent. Does that happen to you? On this blog are wonderful photos of the City of Lights, and she has the most lovely French songs playing. A la prochain:(Boy, my Spellcheck does not like French!)

OK, back to northern California, We had some rain finally and now the Sierra's have snow! So I dug up some images and played with things in my head and came up with this:

Aspen, watercolor, 6X8

I was thinking of one year I was in Boston at the end of October. The maples have so much color. I only experienced that once. When I was a kid we used to go up into the Lincoln Nation Forest when the aspens turned, that can be pretty impressive too. There were roadside stands with apple and cherry cider for sale. Oh, I digress!

For the falling snow I used Winsor & Newton white Calligraphy Ink. The ink was splattered the usual way, but still didn't quite show up enough so I went back in with a dip pen and put a dot of ink on the semi-transparent dots that were there from the splattering. I was trying to keep it looking random. The colorful tree looks like it should have been more gold, but I was using a maple and they are so definitely RED. It was in a field, but the other trees kept multiplying. I was fixing things and it got out of hand.

For some reason I usually put my light source on the left. I haven't figured out why I do that. I tend to be right handed, but I'm ambidextrous. When I learn something with one hand or the other, it tends to be the one I use for that. Of course they usually teach you to do things with the right hand first.
When I start to sketch something vertical and am not paying close attention, if I step back and take a look, everything is leaning to the right. That's a correction you'll see on lots of my stuff.
I'm also trying to learn to use more purple colors. It's an adjustment I have to make in my perception. It's a beautiful color, but I don't wear it well at all, and after all the avoidance it has to be re-incorporated into my spectrum or palette when I paint.

The Paine Massif picture continues. I'm not sure it "progresses." I like the way the main peak is now, but the rocks and snow at the base are discouraging. I thought I did some good work on it yesterday, but when I went back last night, it wasn't all that good. The shape is too complicated and starts to predominate when the peak is the main figure. I'll see if I can get a good shot of it today and upload it. I have to tone down the foreground. Or something.