Burney Falls, plein air pencil sketch

I guess I have been a little obsessed with waterfalls, but spring time is the best time for it. I have had McArthur-Burney Falls on my bucket list since first moving to Northern California over 25 years ago, and finally last weekend, I was able to see them. It was worth the wait. It is quite a phenomenal waterfall with water not only coming over the top of the cliff, but from inside the cliff as well due to an underwater river within the volcanic rock surronding the area. Here is my attempt to sketch the falls from the vista point above the falls.

Half Dome in Mist

So my third Yosemite inspired painting... Half Dome. This one is still a work in progress. I'm taking a step back to figure out where to go with this. My foreground trees are taking too much focus away from Half Dome, as it gets lost in the mist.

It's a nice painting at this point, but now I have to take some risks to bring the focus to Half Dome. Since I don't have a "revert to last saved" button, this painting will only be saved here as I attempt to problem solve.

Model sketching, pencil

I have not sketched from a model in quite some time, so when the Rancho Cordova city hall offered an evening of drawing, I took them up on it. Victoria Smith has been doing an amazing job heading up this great organization, RCAFE: Rancho Cordova art for everyone. For this event, there were two clothed models that I alternated drawing with 15 and 30 minute poses. The sketches are far from being a finished product, but I am quite pleased with them considering the amount of time I had and how long it has been since I have worked from live models. I think my proportions came pretty close. The skull was just a prop for the models to use and I sketched it while the models were taking a break.

Yosemite Falls, watercolor

Here is another Yosemite inspired painting. I am still working from some photos that I took during my visit there last month. Yosemite Falls is always one of the most impressive year round, but with its spring flow, it is even more so.

The cliffs surrounding the falls are quite impressive too, but next time, I think I would crop it down so the focus is more on just the falls and not keep so much foliage or cliffs in the painting. I decided to not use the masking fluid to keep the falls white as I did with my Bridalveil Falls watercolor, but was mindful of where I was painting. These falls are so massive and thick, it just didn't seem necessary.

Bridalveil Falls and Leaning Tower, watercolor

Yosemite has always been one of my favorite places, although I have never used it for inspiration in my paintings. Luckily Sacramento is just close enough to make it a spur of the moment day trip ( a very long day!) I had actually packed all of my gear for plein air painting, but once I got to the valley floor, afternoon thundershowers were threatening, so I decided to just take some pictures and not risk getting soaked. So here is the first of several Yosemite inspired paintings.
Bridalveil Falls was flowing very strong, as to be expected in the spring. You could only get so close before getting wet from the spray. The lone outcropping next to it is called Leaning Tower. (Even having been to Yosemite many times, I did not know this.)

I used masking fluid on the falls and the spray to keep it white but then went back in and added some shadows and a few trees in front of the spray after it had been removed. The falls are so majestic in person, I hope I have done them justice.

Black Hole of Calcutta Falls, watercolor

This is a piece I have been meaning to do for a while but it it has just sat in the shelves of my brain waiting to be dusted off. I originally posted my plein air pencil drawing of the Black Hole of Calcutta Falls  about 3 years ago. When I finally decided to recreate it in watercolor, I decided not to just work directly from the pencil drawing, although I did do the preliminary sketches from it, so there are some similar shapes. But to accurately capture the colors and feel of the falls, I needed to make a day trip up to these falls, just off the confluence of the north and middle forks of the American River. Since my last visit 3 years ago, they have built a foot bridge over the creek, but the charm of the falls was the same, other than a lot of other people on the day I went. It even had close to the same average flow of water as it did the last time. I took some reference photos of the falls as well as some other pics for future projects before heading home.

This painting is the first time I used my masking fluid, which seemed necessary to depict the water splashing over the black rocks. I was worried it would never come off since it seemed to become part of the paper as I painted over it, but after the paint dried, it rubbed right off using a clean finger. Then I went back in to lessen the stark white that had been left with some light washes.