Lake Louise, Canada by Leslie D’Allesandro Hawes (c)
Original colored pencil drawing, Derwent Artists Pencils on mat board, 8″ x 10″
This is my drawing for the February Virtual Sketch Date. The beautiful and challenging reference photo of Lake Louise, Canada, was provided by Debbie Later.
I love to do landscapes, but immediately found this to be an unusually challenging photo to work from. The dark shadow of the lefthand mountain made such a intense visual, I knew that if I didn’t make it the focus, it would fight with anything else I tried to do. The photo on the left is the original, the one on the right is how I cropped it.
I used only five colors for this drawing…Imperial Purple, Light Blue, Chinese White, Prussian Blue, and Mineral Green…all Derwent Artists colored pencil colors. The mat board I used is a mid-tone blue color. I don’t know the name of the color…but it’s blue!
I jumped right in this time,and drew my layout sketch with the Chinese White, and then began adding light layers of Prussian Blue to the left side mountain, Mineral green on the right, and Imperial Purple in the snowy mountains. I used Light Blue in the sky and water.
Direction of strokes played a big part in this drawing. All the colors seemed to apply decidedly horizonal or vertical. The water had to be quite horizontal to imply stillness. Vertical best described the mountains.
This scan shows more layers of Imperial Purple on the left side mountain, and its reflection in the lake. More Chinese White on the snow, too.
More of everything. Working with five colors is unusual for me, but very much easier! I layered more light blue in the sky, and hazed over the purple mountain with the Light Blue. I didn’t like what it did to the tone of the purple. I wanted to smooth out the purple, but it lightened it too much.
I added another layer of Imperial Purple to the mountain, and worked more Chinese White into the snow, and the reflections in the lake. Then I called it done. This scan is the same as the one at the top.
Thanks as always to the Virtual Sketch Date Administrators, Rose Welty, Jeanette Jobson and Stacy Rowan.
