Makin a Little Sunshine

I have to admit that it was a pretty gloomy day here in Portland today! The wind was blowing, it was wet and dark. I was planning on going to life drawing this afternoon, but opted to hunker down in my studio and make a bit of my own sunshine. Good thing too, 'cause my doc says I need the vitamin "D"!

Here's what I did and a couple of the reference photos I was using. The reference shots were taken in Wisconsin. Today, I was really working off the idea of the variations and inventing the color and mood of each scene rather than sticking faithfully to the reference. All three of these were done with a very loose abstract watercolor under-painting on Wallis Museum. I used a wide variety of brands of pastel.  I like how these turned out. They have some atmosphere and some attitude. I was listening to Weezer, All American Rejects, and a little Mazzy Star.