Bowmont park sketch

We had a lovely day in Calgary yesterday.  After several days in a row of rain and cold it was a welcome relief.  I packed myself off to hike in to a spring in Bowmont Park.  Unfortunately, the city is reclaiming the area around it and I wasn’t able to get there.  I settled for one of my favourite places – the Bowmont off leash area.  There is a small island with very shallow water around it right under a railway bridge.  The dogs and kids run around in the shallow water and have a great time.  I enjoyed doing this but this is one of those sketches that you kinda wish you didn’t have to fess up to…  however, I did learn quite a bit from this.  I learned I need to paint outdoors in the dry heat MUCH more often to improve at it.  I will try to do that. 

Today I started a watercolor painting and here are a few pics of that process.  Of course I did work through the composition in my sketchbook briefly to check shapes and values.  Then I drew it up freehand – this painting is about learning a process, not producing a result…  I saved white areas by applying masking fluid and then helped it to “travel” around and spread by spraying water ahead of the flow.  THAT was fun – I had no idea I could use masking fluid like this…  the result will be much softer.  Then I mixed up several colors to pour and had a lovely, messy time doing that…  I enjoyed it and tomorrow I will continue this one.  Ciao!