Trees Sketch before Sunset

Quick sketch in my moleskine!

Sometimes you just have a few minutes to sketch and no time to go anywhere but there is always inspiration in your own backyard. This sketch is close to the end of the day. There are a few bright orange highlights showing on the bare tree limbs, but the sky is still bright bold blue. This little sketch is done in my watercolor Moleskine.



The lower limbs are shrouded in shadows, just starting to lose focus. Shadows don't just darken areas, they blur edges and blend colors.



I kept to a very simple palette in this little sketch. Too many colors would be muddy and distracting in a small sketch. I used cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, azo yellow, cadmium red, quinacridone red and pthalocyanine green. At the very end I dashed in some white gouache to play up the highlighted limbs.



I'm enjoying my little watercolor Moleskine journal. I usually lean toward larger pieces, but the small bound journal keeps my sketches as sketches rather than fully detailed time consuming paintings. I like that the pages really can't be removed so the sketch must be left in my sketchbook. I tend to get a little bogged down with details when I'm recording a scene. This is so small it reminds me that I have a camera for details, a sketchbook is for what the camera misses, such as the faint orange sunset glow against a bright blue sky.

Photos never do show the faint tinge of orange before the sky starts changing to sunset.