ode to the desert through my eyes & pencils & paints

While on my two recent mountain therapy escapes, thoughts of other types of get-aways that I experienced entered my mind.   For the longest stretch of years, at least once a year I headed south to somewhere desert-like.  The most recent was just as our world was changing but we were not with full knowledge yet of the magnitude that would face us.  It feels like that trip was eons ago when in fact it was only two years ago.  While reliving some of those adventures through my blog posts,  the artistic side of my brain began to percolate.  From this collage of photos from some of those trips.....

.....I put pencil and pen-brush in hand to create my ode to the desert!  

This is my first ode to the Saguaro Cactus.  It was done on watercolour paper using watercolour brush pens for everything except the saguaro cactus words and the cactus itself.  I eventually want to learn to journal with the brush pens but for now I used coloured pencils.  Any attempts I made at printing with the brush pens were disastrous.  I followed a tutorial to get the cactus to look like it looks.

This is my second sketch acknowledging the southwest desert and the Saguaro Cactus.  Once again I used watercolour paper.  The background wash was done with a colour from my Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours Pocket Plus Half Pans.  I used my Faber Castell pencils for everything else.  My goal is for the entire project to be done in watercolour. 

The third project in my ode to the desert, combined the cactus with a view of Monument Valley.  I used mixed media paper yet the entire sketch was completed with Faber Castell coloured pencils.   I used my photos as a reference for the scenery.

I was finally feeling ready to go full on with watercolours on a page in my sketchbook.  I did not practice this on scrap paper, I just went for it.  I taped the paper to make a border and to control the spread of the paint as much as possible.  When I completed the project, I was not pleased with it.  I slept on it and when I woke the next morning, I felt thrilled with the outcome!  

Now my mind wanders to where else can I go with this process of 

"odeing" some where or some thing

through my eyes & pencils & paints!