Skyscapes

So this post is 1000 years late (roughly) but here are the ten watercolors from the "Skyscapes" or sky-dominant landscapes assignment. I used mostly photographs of a sunrise over Thousand Hills lake (does that lake have a name? No one will ever know). There are also a few photographs that I used as reference from a trip I took to a wilderness island in Georgia ... I needed some clouds to try out my newly learned "Terry techniques" on. 

In regards to budget, I used the full four hours on these ones. I sat down and did the first five or six in about two hours and then did the rest later. This was also kind of an assembly line kind of deal, in which I worked on multiple at once, laying down tone and then waiting for it to dry. 

The top one here I really liked, I enjoyed experimenting with the different techniques. Here I built up layers of tone and then went in with a sponge and dabbled on some texture, and later added in the yellow and orange. The horizon line isn't exactly straight but other than that I'm pretty happy with this one. 

Below is where I tried out my cloud technique, using a paper towel. It works a lot better with a damp paper towel and a little bit of elbow grease, but overall I liked the effect. I also used Terry's technique of filling in the tree tops and leaves and such and then just coming in with a flat brush to do the trunks. 

These were a little rough, I used pure black for the bottom one here when I should have used some kind of a blueish purple deal (to use technical jargon here). I also had a hard time creating a ripple effect on the lake. 

Below is what we call running out of time/patience for watercolor. 

Failed attempt at a palm tree like effect. Sorry, Terry, I have failed you. 

I liked how these sunrises worked out, I experimented with different techniques of creating the sky vs water effect. 

Okay that's all bye.