California: Mustard Fields and Blue Sky

Spring in the San Francisco Bay Area means lots of mustard flowers! My friend showed me one of the early fields, and as we were sitting there drawing a blanket of yellow flowers under the piercing California blue sky, we talked about Ukraine, America, the past, and the future.

I was torn between doing a full-color sketch in watercolor or gouache but then decided to dive in with the two main colors: blue and yellow and have the rest in monotone. Yellow proved to be a tricky layer as it did not go well over the gray texture that I created - so I added darker tones as a background and then used white gouache, and when it dried - yellow oil pastel (from Jennifer's kit). The sketch turned out not as I thought as my yellow is a much gentle but I like how it did not overwhelm the rest of the sketch. 



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