The Sky is Blue

There is song from the 1950s that begins with the words, "The sun is out, the sky is blue.." Set to an upbeat, cheery tune, that phrase is a perfect summary of how it feels when sunlight breaks through in winter. After a spell of cold, grey, snowy days there have been some beautifully sunny ones. Druid Hill Creek has remained open and unfrozen, even after the deluge of wet snow and low temperatures in the teens, draped in the now-frozen snow that fell a few days back. 

Now that the skies have cleared the heavy snow that clung to branches and twigs is thawing a bit. The morning light across the creek sets up beautiful, abstract shapes and colors in the woods along both banks that I wanted to capture in watercolors. 

Hoff, "Downstream on Druid Hill Creek," watercolor, 8x10

This particular painting was begun my usual way, with a light graphite underdrawing. After that I laid in big pale washes of a mixed blue for the distant sky and shadows and an array of mixed warmer washes. These watercolors are the QoR brand, which carry a higher pigment load than traditional watercolors owing to their synthetic vehicle. Using these colors and a good pointed brush, you can lay in very thin lines that show well because of the higher pigment. I eliminated two or three trees in the foreground to concentrate more on the mid-range and distant scene.