Inktober Day 21 and Graveyard Challenge

This is my Graveyard Challenge. I’ll do the 30 min painting later….the challenge was you had to use only three colors and it had to be plein air. You were permitted a 4th color as an underpainting (I used Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Gold watercolor). I used Ultramarine Blue, yellow ochre and green gouache in a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook…..also my #inktober Day 21 sketch is the other photo and was done in my homemade accordion sketchbook.
   
 

Inktober Day 20

#inktober2015 Day 20It was a mild day….went back to the cemetary….the SMITH crypt caught my eye…the Smiths are a well known foundation family on LI. An artist friend of mine is a Smithtown Smith and he’s very proud of that so I sketched this…..the Great Patchogue Lake is right behind it. At least they picked a scenic spot…(wink)

  

Today’s 30 min painting

Here’s the 30 minute painting….it’s more of a feeling rather than a representation…..why 30 minutes? Because I am trying to capture as much information as I can without overdoing and overworking it. These are being done in sketchbooks and the information I “jot down” here could be developed into a painting at another time.
For the non-artists…..why don’t I take a photo and paint it later? Well, I don’t like working from photos, I like actually being on site…see the blue under the word “King?” That blue and other touches of blue, the warm ochre (yellow for the uninformed) Etc do not show up when you take a photo of the location….the eye is much more accurate.

  

Inktober Day 19

#inktober2015 Day 19…..I felt well enough to get out of the house for a little bit….still can’t talk much but I am feeling a little stronger. I sat in the car, turning the heat on occasionally to stay warm. Even with the sun, it was very cool today.I was studying this grouping of grave markers. They were carved very differently. Not that I am a connoisseur of tombstones or anything but I was intrigued by the design. Both of these folks passed away in 1916 at ages 80 & 81 years old. They lived pretty long given the fact medicine wasn’t what it is today. I kinda wondered how they passed….did one die first and the other of a broken heart? Did they get the flu? An accident and they died together? Natural causes? These are things I pondered as I did this ink sketch and the following post which will be the 30 min painting of the same subject.
  

Inktober Day 15

#Inktober #15 Thumbnail sketches and the value of studying great works. A great lesson I learned from Lynn Whipple. And I am happy to say I completed three sketchbooks that were almost full, these past few days.