My Sketching Hand is Back!!

          Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers.  My sketching hand is back!!

​​We escaped the heat in Tucson by driving to Santa Fe, New Mexico (a feast of restaurants,  galleries, museums, high elevation and cool).  In Tucson, after 6:00AM it has been too hot to sketch.  Our friend Judy invited us to sketch in Los Cerrillos near Santa Fe, a village known for turquoise mining.  The first sketch (vertical) was okay.  But the second one I
​really like!  

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​​​When I started it, I thought the window on the right was the focal point.  The yellow tree and the porch lid took over.  Notice the lightest light next to strong color and darks.  My right hand doesn’t pick up heavy objects, but it can sketch again!!

​Behind our motel from the balcony because it was raining, I got the sketch with the dark tree behind the adobe arch.  The tree took over because it is so dark and isolated. 

​I added more dark trees and the flowers at the base of the adobe, then darkened the distracting little adobe on the right side.  Now the adobe arch is the focal point.  Notice the pen lines of the sketch are mostly obscured by running the dark behind them into the line.  The lines are also wherever you see greying of any color.

​​I promised a fountain with tips about how to do the falling, splashing water.  I got a fair sketch at the Lorretto Inn patio, then realized there are more ways to sketch the water, so I’ll do a second sketch and point out everything in both of them to show falling water in the next blog.
‘Til then,

Happy Sketching!
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