Urban Sketching: Kirkwood Amtrak Station

Kirkwood Amtrak Station
©2015 Steve Penberthy
Watercolor in Strathmore Visual Journal (140-lb CP paper)
5" x 7" (13 x 18 cm)
I met up with the St. Louis Drawing & Painting Meetup Group at this month's Urban Sketching outing.  We sketched the historic and picturesque Amtrak train station in Kirkwood, Missouri.  There were so many people out on this beautiful early fall morning; people walking dogs, shopping, and attending a nearby farmer's market across the street.  Several trains (both freight and passenger) moved through the station area while we sketched; the freight trains operated at deafening levels and seemed to take forever to pass by.  But very cool nonetheless.
I had intended to substitute out a few paints in my kit (Quin Gold & Hematite Burnt Scarlet) before heading out to the event, but forgot in my haste to get out the door on time.  Both of these pigments work well on my larger palette, but I feel that I like the weak opacity of a true raw sienna when I'm sketching on location, as I use it a lot for rendering stone, masonry, etc.  I have been experimenting with Quin Gold as a substitute for Raw Sienna, but again, seem to be preferring the Raw Sienna.  

Balancing Act

Balancing Act
©2011 Steve Penberthy
Watercolor and ink on Strathmore Gemini 140-lb CP paper,
6.75" x 10.25" (16.8 x 26.0 cm)

Watercolor Painting - Near Telluride

Near Telluride
©2011 Steve Penberthy
Watercolor on Strathmore Gemini 140-lb CP paper
15" x 11" (38.1 x 27.9 cm)

I've travelled to Telluride, Colorado many times, and it is one of the most scenic areas I've ever visited.  This view is of a valley meadow just west of town, looking to the east towards the San Juan Mountains and the end of the box canyon in which Telluride is located. (view a photo of this scene from Google Maps)

I painted this scene from a photo I took a few years ago; I was drawn to the scene by the intense blue of the summer sky contrasted against the billowy clouds.  I'd love to say that I just sat down at the paper and, with photo reference at my side, splashed some paint and out came a finished work.  Far from the truth.  It was a long road to get this painting to a composition with which I was satisfied.


First, I drew a pencil drawing of the scene, and I really liked the dark sky contrasting with the clouds; I knew that the focal point of the painting had to be a spot in the sky with the most contrast between dark and light.  In fact, the drawing really didn't come together until I added very strong darks in the sky.

So, using my pencil sketch as a roadmap, I made an initial quarter-sheet painting.  And I hated it.  I mounted another quarter sheet to my board and painted it again.  A little better this time, but I hated this second one also.  I decided to let it sit for a day or so, so I could "walk around it" so to speak.  In the past, I've had some success in getting a painting to a finished state by letting it lay dormant for a short time, allowing me time to gain some needed objectivity for the things I couldn't see (or think of) during the heat of the painting battle.

So, after a day or so, I looked at the painting again, and made a list of what I thought was wrong or needed correction:
1.  I had failed to get my focal point across; I didn't have enough contrast between dark and light in the sky.
2.  There wasn't much value contrast in the painting as a whole; it was largely middle values.
3.  There was no light; no life.  It looked flat.
4.  The colors were muddy.
5.  I had imprecise edges on the mountains from errant brush strokes and bleeding of the paint.

I started drawing value sketches--a lot of value sketches.  I explored compositional changes, alternatives in value dominance, and even played with the idea of adding some close trees in the foreground as a new center of interest:

Thumbnail exploring compositional
and value alternatives

Should I add a tree in the
foreground as a focal point?

Third set of thumbnails exploring
compositional and value alternatives.
Finally--I like the one in the lower
right-hand corner!

Prototype on
iPhone Brushes app

I finally decided that, instead of making the mountains a middle value (as they were in the photo), I would represent them as a dark, thin shape.  The skies would remain a middle value, the foreground a light value (the yellow I used in the final painting reads as a light value), and the clouds my lightest.  To test whether this made sense using color, I quickly prototyped the painting using the Brushes app on my iPhone, as shown at left.

Finally satisfied with the values and composition, the painting came together.  And I addressed the muddy colors by giving my palette and brushes a much-needed cleaning.

It was a fun day in the studio, but it was the work of the initial attempts, objective analysis, and thumbnail sketches that brought it all together.

I don't go through this process with all of my paintings; in fact, I probably did a better job than I ever have at trying to critically analyze what wasn't working.  I learned a lot!

Enjoy!
Steve

Watercolor Sketch - Hayden Valley, Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Watercolor sketch in Canson All-Media sketchbook, 90-lb CP paper, 6" x 9" (15.2 x 22.8 cm). I sketched this landscape from a photo I took during a vacation in Yellowstone National Park a few years ago.

Watercolor Sketch - Flowers

Watercolor sketch in Aquabee 808 Super Deluxe sketchbook. Approx. 5" x 6" (12.5 cm x 16.0 cm).

Distant Shoreline of Trees

Watercolor on Arches 140-lb cold-pressed paper, 5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm).

Gaining Control Over the Movement of Water and Paint

I did a fun exercise from the April 2007 issue of Watercolor Magic magazine from an article titled, "Learn to Gain Control Over the Movement fo Water and Paint" by Birgit O'Connor. I feel like the exercise was a success and a valuable learning experience. Actually producing some beautiful multicolor washes is giving me the confidence that I could reproduce this same effect for some interesting, atmospheric sky washes.

Colors used:
Top -- Ultramarine Blue and Holbein Opera;
Middle -- Cadmium Yellow Pale and Holbein Opera;
Bottom -- Cadmium Yellow Pale and Ultramarine Blue.