Saturday brought another session of sketching in the afternoon. Luckily the weather was reasonable, if not really warm, though the wind was fairly brisk most of the early afternoon. We went to Union Park, a beautiful spot above the east side of the Des Moines River. With the trees now leafless you could see the downtown skyline against the sky with a curtain of trees in front. The river flowed silvery at the foot as well. You could almost feel winter, crouching behind the horizon.
I sat at the top of the hill above the park entrance and gazebo to sketch. But the wind! At first it wasn't so bad but the gusts made it hard to keep the watercolor sketchbook on my knee. Facing the conditions I decided to be as broad and minimal as I could in painting the scene. I drew a quick layout, then washed on a cerulean sky. Next I mixed a warm dark for the bank and skyline then worked in the trees in the foreground and gave the river some dark reflections. A technical pen helped with the finish. I emphasized certain parts of the buildings by reinforcing the darks and added branches, twigs, the far river bank, and a few details here and there. The painting below is about 5x10 in my sketchbook.
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