Since I started sketching, I take fewer photographs. Instead of trying to capture every interesting camera angle, I spend more time looking for something interesting to draw.
When visiting new places, I sketch as often as I can. While my wife captures her watercolor visions relatively quickly, it takes awhile for me to complete the linework on a sketch. The process of building up color takes infinitely longer.
Last year, on our trip to Colorado, I started lots of sketches. While I completed the linework on all of them, I only started coloring a few, and completed just one. So on our latest trip to Hawaii, I decided I just wanted to do one or two sketches, and make sure I completed them.
We returned several times to this little parking lot. We sat in the car, and I gradually added to my sketch. I found it helpful to inhabit the same place, to see the trees, rocks, and sea before me. When we returned home, I used the above photo on my computer as a reference. After several more coloring sessions, I completed it.
It may not be exactly what I saw, but it's what I could draw.
As it turned out, I started three sketches in Hawaii. There's another one I really want to work on, of the nearby Japanese Gardens. I'm not sure when, or if, I'll get around to the third. But if all I ever finish is this one sketch from our recent visit, I'll be happy.
Dragon Dave
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