I just got back from Alaska, where I saw a whole bunch of gorgeous views! As always, I brought my sketchbook, and as always, I ended up with way more photos than drawings. This is a good thing – I’ll have landscape practice material that will last me all winter, at least.
Today’s post is something that I drew while I was at my destination last week, in Alaska’s southern panhandle. I decided to include the whole page of sketches that I blocked in with watercolor this afternoon. These show how I start thinking about taking a scene and breaking it down into its components. Small and simplified, you can look at the composition better this way and make a more informed decision about whether or not the image would make a good full-sized painting.
The top two landscapes are mini composition studies that I took based on photos. However, the bottom drawing with the island was drawn quickly at the table of the rental property and showed the scene right outside our window! I also included a little rendition of the stuffed bison that decorated the wall of the rental. I don’t know where the fellow came from, since plains bison don’t seem to be native to Alaska, but I painted them into the green tree line, anyhow.