Beautiful and Dangerous

Making art as an act of discovery.

I had the opportunity to visit Boulder, Colorado recently and hike a small portion near The Flatirons—five impressive rock formations along the east slope of Green Mountain. I’m always amazed when I see mountains. They tend to appear otherworldly to me—like a backdrop has been superimposed. Getting the chance to get up close made it feel much more real. When I got home, I used a couple of the photos I took as reference for some watercolor experiments.

Usually I like to take process photos of whatever I’m working on. But I got totally immersed in the process of making the pages feel more and more alive and forgot. (Maybe that’s not a bad thing?!)

I like to use reference photos as a starting point. Once I find my footing, I usually take liberties to capture a feeling more than the exact image. As an example, here’s the main photo I used as reference for the landscape.

I had several versions of the photo above—some had paths, some didn’t—and ultimately I decided to add a path in my painting to add depth and invite the viewer in. My favorite part was layering the various shades of green to add more depth and foliage. I worried less about capturing individual trees and focused more on color and texture.

Here are the reference photos I used for the flowering cactus page:

The second photo is not great. The main flower is out of focus! But it was useful reference for the actual cactus part and the buds.

In addition to watercolor, I used color pencils to amp up the shading in spots, add the spikes, and squiggle in the words.

Summertime is my favorite time to make “just because” art. And by that, I mean, art with no preconceived outcome. Art as an act of discovery.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for being here! Time and attention are among our most precious resources, and I truly appreciate you making space for my work. In case you missed it, last week I shared a comic called Snowfall in June.

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