In this watercolor sketch of three bears I focused on creating a realistic brown and adding form to the animals with warm and cool colors. I avoided any detail in the foreground and background so as to focus attention on the bears.
A couple of weeks ago I was in San Antonio on a business trip and had a few hours before my flight home so I decided to visit the Alamo and learn more about it's history. About 200 men battled 2000 Mexican soldiers to defend the Alamo in 1836. The odds were overwhelming but these brave men fought to the death in a two week battle. The Texians and Tejanos that defended the Alamo were commanded by William B. Travis along with David Crockett and James Bowie. The Texians were able to sneak out messengers to ask for help but no help arrived. This was an important battle in the Texas Revolution. Later in the year Sam Houston and his Texians surprised Santa Anna and the Mexican forces in the Battle of San Jacinto which led to the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas independence. I sketched this picture of the front entrance to the Alamo from a brochure.
It has been raining here a lot over the last week and we certainly need the rain. So I took a break to sketch a scene from our living room. My wife is the talented one that plays the harp and makes quilts such as the valentine quilt on the couch.
The Yangtze river in China is the longest river in Asia (6300 km) and the 3rd longest river in the world. The modern Chinese name is Chang Jiang which means "long river". The Yangtze flows from its source in the Qinghai province eastwards through some large gorges into the East China Sea at Shanghai. This picture gave me a peaceful yet adventurous feeling. The two people on the river boat are involved in their work as they sail along the Yangtze against the backdrop of the river shoreline and forested mountains.
Here is a sketch I did of the Battle of Long Island in 1776 using ink, watercolor, and watercolor pencils. I find that the watercolor pencils are good for adding details after sketching key structures in ink and then applying various watercolor washes. I like how the colors turned out but I found it tedious to creating the soldiers therefore this sketch does not really communicate the full sense of the battle.
The human figure in motion as represented in dance is one of the most interesting subjects to draw. I began this drawing simply trying to capture the motion and angles of the dancers. Next I sketched in the faces. I then worked on getting the body proportions correct and unfortunately ran out of space at the bottom of the page. I should have first sized the subject to the paper. In order to bring out the dancers more I shaded in the background with a light blue colored pencil and burnished the blue with a light gray pencil.
These sketches are of a beautiful winter day we spent at a beach near Half Moon Bay, California. We packed a few sandwiches, hopped around the tide pools and then hiked to the beach seen here. While I sketched the scenery, my younger daughter buried her twin brother in a deep hole they both dug in the sand with only his head sticking out. I remember having a lot of fun doing that when I was a kid. Anyway, while the kids were playing I made a few sketches and these are of the view to the Northwest. I think the sky turned out nice in the watercolor sketch along with an interesting color for the beach sands. However, I'm having trouble sketching rock textures (lower right) and ocean waves. I have a great book by Jack Hamm called Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes
. Unfortunately, I seem to forget a lot of his tips when I'm out in the field. Have a Happy New Year!
Posts
All Comments
