Friday, January 16, 2015

Retired Red Lady!

The red lady in this case is a wonderful old caboose! 

From Sketchbook Skool homework: Draw in Public.

Well, I tried. Went to the Railroad Park here in Medford, Oregon. It was foggy and cold. THEN it decided to rain. Snapped a reference photo, and headed back home to finish.

This is my reference photo; you'll see 
softened the bright green of the grass,
since I wanted the grand old 
Red Lady to be the focus.


But by at least starting on site, I still felt the cold, fog, and quiet of that old retired caboose even after I got home. 

As I drew, I thought of all the stories it could tell, the miles it had seen. So I didn't do my customary bright colors, but "foggy" and somewhat quiet colors around the old red Lady.  

I started with loose light umber colored pencil sketching. No pencil and eraser... oh so hard for me! But it was fun to experiment! (can click image to enlarge)




"Retired Caboose"

9 x 12 sketchbook; ink, watercolor, 
watercolor pencil, colored pencil 
and white gouache




Happy Sketching,

Retta

6 comments:

  1. I had to put on my sweater to look at this cold, lonely picture. The bleakness of the day is definitely there. Was the caboose actually red? I thought they were an orange-red mixture. The bright red made it seem newer, but that's just a non-artist opinion. Overall, I like your watercolor sketch. Brr!

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    1. Thanks, Karen, glad you liked it.
      And there ya go, just for you I added the reference photo.

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  2. I love this sketch even though I live in Arizona and am happy to escape as much of winter as possible. :)

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  3. oh to have your talent.

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    1. Ah, but you DO, you just express it differently. :-D

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