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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Saturday Night in Altoona

I just posted this on the Urban Sketchers blog, and thought I'd put it here too...you might be interested!


We had planned to stay over in Indianola on our way to the Amana Colonies, but there was no room at the inn.  After much wandering about, we found ourselves on a rainy Saturday night in Altoona, by a truck stop.  I was determined to draw, so I sat at the window and went for it!  The air conditioning unit acted as a table and the windowsill was my taboret.


I've been carrying a woodless colored pencil so I didn't have to worry about the lead refusing to sharpen...did the initial sketch with that, in black...


When I added the color from my retrofitted Prang set (my current favorite travel palette) I discovered it was a woodless WATERCOLOR pencil.  Ooops.  Oh well, I rather liked the effect, it made it look as rainy as it indeed was. 

Joseph suggested I shoot a photo of my subject...looks kind of unprepossessing, doesn't it?  You can see I edited quite a bit out!  (Squished the big truck up a bit, too, so it would fit on my page...)

4 comments:

  1. Cool! Great job turning a dreary scene into a work of art. I think quite a lot of our world is like that. It needs the artist's interpretation for us to see its true spirit. A camera won't do. It only shows what you can see with your eyes; not what's really THERE.

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  2. You nailed it, Cindy! That's just how I feel.

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  3. You amaze me. Thank you for sharing your photos too and making paintings that are soooo much better than the reality. Picking something that I never would and making it interesting. That's how I dream of painting. Thank you for inspiring me.

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  4. Thank you for your kind words! I just pay attention to whatever's there...keeps life interesting.

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