Another spring journal of Druid Hill Creek wasn't in my plans, but the convenience of the view and the harsh end of winter led to enough watercolor sketches to put one together. These several views are from last month, the transition month between snow and daffodils.
March started slightly warmer than February had been, but the ealy month still featured days below zero. Even so, you could feel the season beginning to turn and Druid Hill Creek started running dark and open. The last deep snowfall still clung to the banks for quite a few days, though, and some branches and the skies were grey--pewter to silver.
These sketches of March days were all done in a 5x9 sketchbook I keep on the sill in my studio at home. I start by laying in the overall composition in graphite or sometimes in colored pencil. Then I put in big washes of color, usually trying to keep the effects very broad and not detailed at all. Strengthening of the darker passages is next as a bit more detail comes in. Although I used the creek for my subject, it's important to me not to be a slave to the actual view and instead to attempt to make each picture a stand-alone piece, not an overly detailed technical drawing. When I'm satisfied with the darks I add line work in ink, place color accents, and sign. I've used old-style dip pens but the most common pens I use are tech pens.
The thing about spring, regardless of any other factor, is how ambient light becomes warmer. Looking through these sketches, the change is obvious. Here and there in this sketch (left), last year's yellowed grasses are peeping from the snow. The creek is flowing smoother as the thaw sends more water downstream, reflecting a cloudy grey sky. Even with clouds, the warm light filters in. As in other sketches it simply felt right to leave the branch-work on the right bank vague and relatively darker in the sunlight falling from right to left.
By late in March the trees on either bank began to look more dense somehow--perhaps their bud and branches were swelling with rising sap. Whatever the reason, the wood seem more dense and shadowy and sometimes the creek becomes a slash of bright bluelue reflecting the sky above. By the third week of the month, after a few days of high temperatures in the 50s most snow had melted by the time of the sketch to the right. Here and there dark soil showed and the yellowed grasses from last year looked more brown than yellow. It was important to me to emphasize the bright sky reflection in the creek, so I darkened the distant undergrowth more than in actuality. Also, this sketch is a bit larger--about 5x13--to emphasize the height of the trees along the creek. Again quite a lot of tree trunks have been omitted. The value pattern is quite different after a thaw because light-reflective snow on the ground provides a considerably lighter environment. Like the other watercolors, I enhanced edges and some other details with ink.
The last sketch was done primarily to study ways to render reflections in watercolor. Only a few days after the last sketch above, this one shows the grasses looking lighter, the sky more grey, and the undergrowth lighter too. The creek surface is very smooth, and the distant trees reflect as dull olive-green. In this one, the composition includes some of the trees at the near bend in the creek, but distant ones are edited out.
For anyone who wants to sketch in watercolor, my advice is to take the "Nike approach." That is to say, "just do it." For me, sketching is about a number of things--a way to try out new idea, a way to practice certain drawing and painting techniques economically, a way to satisfy curiosity about seldom-used materials or media, and more.. These kinds of quick, loose sketches in watercolor, or in pencil or ink or whatever are incredibly useful. And you never have to show them to anyone.
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