Taking a stock of my current palette by painting an artichoke flower.

I've been on a "let's rethink the palettes" track of thinking (sub-set of "let's think how to NOT take all the art supplies you own with you when you go drawing on location"). But making it all happen required taking stock of what I've been using lately and what I want to do going forward. So I went to paint on location with my main palette of late, where I have both watercolors and gouache. This little artichoke is what I ended up with. And below is an older sketch record where you can see what's in this palette (helps me as a reference). And I ended up keeping the same set of colors for now - just refilling some that were used up. 

Visit to an Artichoke Patch

In my neighborhood, there is a house where people LOVE growing artichokes. Some years they have huge plants, some smaller. I've been visiting this place for a few years now, left some artichoke sketches by the door during the pandemic as these purple beauties made my bike rides very special that year. This week I went back to check on them again. Looking for familiar and unfamiliar shapes and textures of leaves and stalks, and in the flowers. They always surprise me with the intensity of color and the joy of figuring out how they are built. 

I started with a super quick ink sketch to get it out of the way and then spent some time looking at different parts of the same plane with gouache (used as watercolor mostly) and ink.

Bike and Sketch Adventures Continue! A House with Artichoke Front Yard

Extra long days (happy Summer Solstice a little over a week ago!) and extra large sketchbook with extra great company this week means I went to more biking adventures! 

This time - to paint wonderful purple artichoke flowers :) 

Gouache and stencils in my A3 SKetchbook - process photos are below.