Sailing on the Yangtze

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.

Battle of Long Island 1776

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.

A trip to the ballet

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.

Winter day at the beach

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!