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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"Watercolor Sketch - Defiance Road"



"Watercolor Sketch - Defiance Road"
6.7" x 9.5" (17x24 cm)
Watercolor on Strathmore Gemini 140-lb CP paper
sketchbook painting
© 2009 Steve Penberthy

Defiance Road runs runs east-west into Defiance, Missouri, which sits at the northern parts of Missouri Wine Country.  The weekend weather offered some great fall color, and I'm reaping the benefits with some good ideas for paintings.  This is a watercolor sketch for a larger painting I want to do, and I used this sketch to try out a few ideas. One idea in particular was to try a mix of vermilion hue with french ultramarine for the road, which I think worked well; I've used this mix before for some explosive granulation, so I hope to achieve that in the larger painting. I rendered white tree trunks by scraping damp paint with a credit card, but I plan to use masking fluid in the final painting.  I will definitely mask the fence... and, I'm still challenged by how to better show the sky peeking through the trees...

6B pencil in Canson Montval All-Media Sketchbook, © 2009 Steve Penberthy

I drew this preliminary pencil sketch first; I really didn't worry too much about making it a true value sketch, but I did use it to play with some value ideas, which I incorporated into the watercolor sketch above.