Hikes

[pasithea]

The weather this weekend was beautiful. On Saturday, paka and I went hiking up at Loch Lomond. I wanted to go there because it's nearby and because it is closed in the winter months and had only just opened to the public again so it seemed like it might be a great place to go before it starts getting too heavy with tourists.

The loch is beautiful with deep clear water and at least one island of a fair size. You can rent a rowboat and go out to it if you're so inclined, though we were not on this particular adventure. The hiking trail we took was beautiful. Started along the side of the loch then went up into the mountains and back down, transitioning from redwood forest to tan oak and madrone further up. There were lots of little opportunities to stop and draw but I didn't really get to do as much as I wanted. Paka needed to get back to San Jose and that kind of moved us on at a faster clip. On the whole though, it was a wonderful hike and it would be hard to beat the weather. :)

For some time now, I've observed that I need to work more with contrast in my art. I use dark pencils but there's still a lot of range I could be exploring. During this hike, some of the stumps and creeks and stuff made me really wish I'd brought ink and watercolor board for doing ink washes as I thought that would have been a much better way to capture what I was seeing than trying to use just a pencil.

So. Sunday I went hiking again, this time carrying ink and watercolor board. I just walked from my house down to Highlands Park and from there down to the river. Ironically of course, I ended up not painting anything in ink. I spent a lot of my time just enjoying hiking. I found some beautiful trilliums in full bloom so I spent a while sketching them, then sat by the river a while and drew the opposite shore. I was going to do watercolor of that but needed the bathrooms and hiked back up to the more accessible areas of the park.

There was an older gentleman named Nick sitting in the cultivated part of the park, playing irish folk tunes on a tin whistle so I sat down in the shade and drew him playing for quite a while. For some reason, I was having a hard time nailing him down. His pose was a bit awkward and his features were hard for me to draw for some reason. I eventually ended up with a few good sketches of him but again never got the chance to transition to the watercolor paper and ink washes. Ohwell.

All in all a lovely weekend even if I didn't get a lot done.

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[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

O ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak the low road,
An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.