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This is a sketchbook page from a visit to the Hunnington Botanical Garden in Pasadena, Ca.
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Los Gatos Creek. Watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper.
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Tobacco tree sprig.
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Santa Barbara Hills.
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Strangler Fig, Costa Rica.
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Buncha roughs this week.
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Joshua Tree National Park in the desert region of Southern California.
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I used to live in North Glendale Ca. Here are a couple of quickies from around the neighborhood.
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Moleskine studies.
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The colors in these rolling California hills at dusk are so hard to get. I did the best I could here by using alot of layering. I've left this one full rez for you to take a closer look if you're so inclined.
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In Bryce National Park, Utah
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Brush pen sketch of a spot visited last summer in the Sequoia Foothills.
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Sunset in Death Valley.
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Three Rivers in Sequoia National Park.
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A demo for you this week. This is watercolor and gouache in a heavyweight craft paper sketchbook. The location is Towsley Canyon Creek in the Santa Clarita Valley, northwest of LA.




















The finish is softer with more glazing than I usually do, I tend to preserve the brushwork. But getting the simple masses of color was more important to me in this case.

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From a trip to Utah back in '01
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Brush pen sketches of places visited on my summer vacation.
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Big Tujunga Creek.
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I pulled over onto a side street and did this very quick sketch of the 210 freeway overpass while sitting in my car.
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Sunset in Death Valley.
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The stream. Watercolor with white gouache.
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Late afternoon sketches in Central California.
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Pyramid Lake in Southern California.
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Creekbed in Angeles Crest Forrest. This is as far as I got before it started to rain.
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Moleskine sketch of Towsley Canyon Creek.
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A demo for you this week. This is a canyon in Arches National Park, Utah and was done in watercolor with white gouache.

I don't usually work on black paper but sometimes it's a nice way to frame a very luminous or atmospheric subject.

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San Pedro industrial plant at dusk.
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San Pedro shipping yard.
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Brush pen sketches.
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San Pedro shipping yard.
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Cambodian ruins.
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View from my folks home outside of Coalinga in central California.
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Spring thistle.
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The peach trees in our back yard are in bloom.
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Stone Path.
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Cambria rocks on the Central California Coast.
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Tree grove at the Los Osos State Beach on the California Central Coast.
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Corcovado falls, Costa Rica.
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Naples marina, Long beach CA.
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If you've made the drive from central California to LA, you've probably seen this scene as you approached the Grapevine at dusk.
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A quick one before the rain came down.
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Mausoleum.
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Something a little closer to traditional watercolor technique for this week.
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On my way back from Christmas in Utah I took a diversion into Death Valley.
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Wasatch Mountain range in Utah where I spent my Christmas vacation.

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Dusk in Sand Piper Park, Redwood Shores Ca.
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If you've ever made the drive from LA to Vegas you've seen this cement factory on the way.
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More sketches from around the neighborhood.
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Neighborhood house.
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More from the hills of North central California outside the town of Coalinga.
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I've sometimes heard complaints about the dusty landscape of Coalinga (central California) where I grew up but I don't share those sentiments.
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Bangkok
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Angeles National Forest Northeast of Los Angeles.
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More moleskine painting
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Though I usually use a craft paper sketch book to paint in, I also enjoy carrying around a small moleskine, it's just so handy! So, some years ago I decided to put together a pocket size watercolor kit for the moleskine. This is what I came up with.

The case is a samsonite camera case and the drawings are in black prismacolor pencils.

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A few more Grand Canyon sketches.

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Arizona canyon at dusk.

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Late afternoon in Zion National park, Utah.
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In the middle of Arizona page 2.
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Somewhere in the middle of Arizona.
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Outside Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park, Utah
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I have more sketches of the Grand Canyon I'll post later, but for this week, let's jump over to Bryce Canyon.
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Continuing Grand Canyon sketches.
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I spent my summer vacation touring the national parks of Arizona and Utah. We'll start with the Grand Canyon. These were painted in a heavyweight black paper scrapbook. The dark paper seemed to suit the subject as there was so much light bouncing around in the shadows. I "borrowed" the black paper idea from one of my former students Chris Sears.

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These are my demo sketches from our landscape sketching class trip to Eaton Canyon in Pasadena. Good times.

And for those of you who have been asking for higher res images, the middle one is for you.
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Rocks in Angeles Crest Forest.
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Late afternoon outside Coalinga in central California.
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This will be the final Death Valley post for awhile; we'll move on to a new subject next week. If the sketches here feel a little different than the previous posts, it's because they were done many years earlier. These were done in acrylic on a Prince of Egypt art department trip in 1997. We didn't get to go to Egypt but did spend a week in Death Valley studying the desert landscape. The top one predates a sandstorm by about 10 minutes, the textures you see on it were created when it blew over into the sand. Great trip.
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Dusk in Death Valley.
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Continuing the Death Valley posts. These and the previous are from a trip there during Christmas break a few years back.
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Again in Death Valley. This is the opposite view of the previous post.
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Death Valley. Looking out from the mouth of Mosaic Canyon.
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More from Death Valley
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Near the entrance to Death Valley
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Lake Arrowhead California after sunset.
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Canyons outside of Hurricane Utah.
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Northern California pond. You have to paint quick when it's getting dark.
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Costa Rican waterfall
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Corcovado Rain Forest stream, Costa Rica.
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Santa Clara hills

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Northern California woods.
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From a trip to Costa Rica.
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The flowers have come into bloom here in the Santa Clarita valley.
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Hegben Lake, Montana.

This is from a particularly memorable 2 1/2 week painting trip where I toured the national parks of Utah (previous post), drove through Montana to Glacier National Park and back to California.

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Late afternoon in Zion Canyon, Utah.
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An afternoon of painting at Vasquez Rocks.
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Vasquez Rocks, north of Los Angeles on an overcast evening.
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View from Mulholland drive.

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A quickie from a trip to Lake Arrowhead, Ca. a few summers ago.
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Switzer Creek in Angeles Crest forest. This is gouache on illustration board from back in '99.

I've spent alot of time sketching in this area. It feels completely unlike LA but is only a 20 minute drive from Glendale where I lived for many years.
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Los Gatos Canyon mountains, outside Coalinga Ca.
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From a trip to Peru a few years ago.
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I spent this New years at 7,500 feet in Timberlakes, Utah. Beautiful and...COLD!
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