Art & Story Blog

I went out to the Angeles National Forest yesterday for a day-long landscape class with Karl Gnass. We moved very slowly along the Switzer Falls trail, with no intention of making it to the falls. Instead, we strolled along the trail that runs alongside and criss-crosses the creek, stopping about every quarter-mile or so.

I got a chance to break in my new Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook, Japanese Water-Brush Pen, and Windsor & Newton Sketcher’s Pocket Box of Watercolors. It had been a while since I’d used any watercolors, and it was my first time using the Water-Brush Pen, so there was a little bit of a learning curve. Needless to say, there are a few that I won’t be posting on here. The above watercolor was my last of the day. I really took my time with it, and in fact, stayed after everyone had left, so I could finish it. I wanted at least one pretty picture out of this!

Below are some sketches from earlier in the day, before I broke out the paints. The sketch of the snake is the real deal. We were all sitting by the creek, when this snake slithered casually by the feet of one girl in the class. She was about 5 to 10 feet away from me when it happened. We thought maybe it was a rattlesnake without the rattle.