Mt. Tallac in watercolor, Plein air

An iconic feature of South Lake Tahoe, Mt. Tallac can be seen from most anywhere in town. It is quickly recognized by the snow in the shape of a cross.  This snow used to be there year round but recently has started to melt more in the summer...global warming? In my painting, I was generous with the snow in the cross.

In the late afternoon, my family went down to the lake, specifically the west end of Kiva Beach, and while they played on the beach, I painted. The afternoon sun tends to shade a lot of the peak, so the colors are a little darker than they would have been in the morning.
I started out with a quick pencil sketch as I usually do, then added in the sky and clouds (since they move so quickly!)  and continued working down adding in the foreground trees last. When I was finished, I kind of wished I had made the piece vertical so that I could have included Taylor Creek in the foreground.

Reference photo...before the clouds floated away

Pencil sketch

Finished painting drying on easel

Next time...vertical format including Taylor Creek. (Clouds are already gone...)

Finished painting

Zephyr Cove reworked

It's interesting how things look different once you have different lighting on a painting. I realized that my Zephyr Cove painting did not have very much contrast...probably because I was out in the bright sun when I was painting it.
Once I got inside, I knew I needed to put more color into the water, but then I also worked more color into the mountains so that the white rocks would stand out more.

I also noticed how I "squished" the scenery in the photo to fit my painting and make the composition look better... artistic license! Next time maybe I will try using half of a horizontal sheet so I can stretch out the scenery more accurately.

Plein air at Zephyr Cove

Post 100 on my blog! Continuing my Tahoe vacation, I spent the day at Zephyr Cove hanging out at the beach getting thoroughly sunburned. This has always been one of my favorite spots on the lake because of the rock formations that jut out into the lake.

After completing the painting, I checked my reference photos and realized that my values were off...the sky was a lighter blue, the mountains were darker than the sky, but lighter than the distant lake. I will need to rework this one later, but I think I just need to add more color to the water to finish this one for now.

Plein air from the patio near Lake Tahoe

Having a nice, relaxing day up in the mountains near Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side. While sitting on the patio, watching the clouds roll in, I felt inspired to capture the scene.  The light changes fast up here, and by the time I was finishing up, it was raining! Five minutes later it stopped, but that's what's to be expected on a summer afternoon.

Portrait of yogananda complete

After letting this sit awhile as just blue yogananda, I decided to complete him by adding in color to give it more depth. I am still questioning whether he's done...I still could still tweak the robe a little and add some more dimension to his hair...but since I want the focus to be on his face and his eyes, I'm going to call it complete!

Pastel spirit animals

Just playing around with some pastels...the ones I had felt more like chalk. A new medium to experiment with, and on 6"x6" black paper. Just some 15 minute sketches of and eagle and owl.
I'm not sure why they are both birds, but I was focused on totems, or my spirit animals and this is what came to me...maybe this explains my dreams of flying!?

Blue Yogananda, a portrait in progress

I was working on a portrait of Paramahansa Yogananda, and started by just putting in the shadows with blue...and I got to this point and thought...I could just leave it just like this.
But it is missing some depth and color, so I will say it is still in progress.

Watercolor Dragonfly

My wife loves dragonflies and now that it is spring, they are all over the place! So a couple of weeks ago, partly inspired by fellow water colorist Kandi Thompson and her piece "Dragon Fly", I decided to paint a dragonfly. I started with a pencil sketch, and added in some background color, and then it sat on my art table for about 2 weeks...I'm not sure why I was stuck. Was it the translucent wings? Deciding the colors?
I finally sat down this morning and just whipped it out. Once I had the brush in my hand, the paint just flowed out of it...literally! Looking back, maybe it needed that time to process it, but once I put my mind to it, it happened. I think I just had a bad case of procrastination.