#DesertPleinAirMonth day 31. Last day! This restaurant opened recently and has had this giant "Grand Opening" balloon up for a couple of weeks. It looked like it would be fun to draw, so I decided to do some urban sketching.

Pitt Pens and watercolor on mixed media paper.

#urbansketch #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 30. I really thought I would have this one finished today. When I started filling in all of the tiny little circles, I realized I had a ways to go haha. I will post the completely finished version of this in a couple of days.

#watercolorpencils #pleinair #pittpens #art

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 29. Tonight I drew the remnants of our takeout on the patio.

Pitt Pens on toned gray paper.

#urbansketch #sketchbook #tonedgraypaper #art #pittpens

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 28. I got a new "Plein Air" set of Sennelier oil pastels at week ago and today was the first day it was cool enough to take them outside. After a very gray day, we had a nice sunset.

#pleinair #oilpastels #landscape #art #artiest #ducks

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 27. I drew some Palo Verdes that were blooming in the Papago Park parking lot. I used water soluble Pentel markers for most of the drawing and added some metallic gold flowers at the end. My favorite part of the drawing is the quail.

#urbansketch #urbansketching #pleinair

Watercolor painting of Saguaro at Sunset

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 26. I drew in the details w/ micron pen and then waited for the sunset to paint the sky. I had enough light to see color at first, and then it got dark so I had to start guessing what colors I was using. Luckily, I didn't paint any purple bushes haha.

#pleinair #desert #art

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 25. Today, it hit 96 degrees outside. It was totally surprising and unseasonable. As a result, I decided that today would be a good day to wait until the evening when it would cool down and sketch something on my patio.

#watercolor #pleinair #stilllife

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 24. Today I had to go to the post office, so I decided to draw it. I wanted to play with two sets of pens and two sets of colors-- highlighting some things with color and leaving everything else in grayscale. I'm pretty happy with it!

#urbansketch #urbansketching #pleinair

Pen and watercolor pencil drawing of saguaro ribs and a saguaro.

Pen and watercolor pencil drawing of a cholla skeleton.

Pen and watercolor pencil drawing of desert marigolds.

Hand holding a drawing in front of a dead saguaro.

Day 23 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. Today I went to Usery Mountian Regional Park to draw some close-ups. I love the texture of cactus skeletons, so I had to include both a cholla skeleton and saguaro ribs. I plan to finish this page another day this month.

#pleinair #watercolorpencils #cactus #desert

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 22. Having some fun drawing with Posca markers on black paper. The ASU building in downtown Mesa has interesting lighting designs that change throughout the evening. They made a fun backdrop for the Mesa Public Schools building in the foreground.

#urbansketch #pleinair

Watercolor and Micron Pen drawing of large trees by a canal.

Watercolor and Micron Pen drawing of large trees by a canal

Hand holding a pen sketch of trees by a canal.

Large trees by a canal

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 21. It was not a peaceful drawing session. I had a large dog barking at me endlessly from the yard behind me, a motor bike whizzing by, and finally a maintenance truck that came up the path and forced me to move completely. Not my day, hahah.

#pleinair #urbansketch #trees

For #DesertPleinAirMonth day 20, I finished the watercolor sketchbook page with scenes from my neighborhood. We had a beautiful sunset today, so painting that was my favorite part.

#urbansketching #urbansketch #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 19. Today I had an appointment near downtown Phoenix, so I had a great view of the downtown skyline. I only had a few minutes to sketch while I was there, so I had to add most of the details when I got home.

#pittpens #lineandwash #watercolor #urbansketching #urbansketch

For #DesertPleinAirMonth day 18, I went to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. It was very cold and windy today. I had to stop my sketch early because I couldn't feel my fingers haha. I enjoyed drawing all of the stylized lines in this one.

#fabercastellpittpens #landscape #pleinair #lineandwash

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 17. Today I decided to create a layout in a watercolor sketchbook where I could sketch various scenes from around my neighborhood. I'm not sure how I managed to tilt the houses and the street. I'll pretend I was trying to draw them on a hill LOL.

#pleinair #urbansketch

Day 16 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. Today I decided to take it easy and sketch some ducks. I had the interesting challenge of attempting to walk and sketch at the same time so that I could keep up with them while they swam.

#animalsketch #pleinair #sketch

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 15. An adventure and a struggle. I planned to paint this scene with late afternoon lighting. After going home, I changed it to what I remembered the sunset looking like. Painted with Soho Oil Sticks and pallet knives. Fun, but I'm exhausted!
#pleinair #landscape #oilsticks

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 14. I waited all day for the sky to clear enough for everything to look a bit less gray. I decided to paint from my car since it was also freezing. A very insistent bird kept landing on my side mirrors and scaring me half to death. It was bizarre!

#watercolor #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 13. Today I did more urban sketching from the alley way and parking lot behind the buildings in downtown Mesa. Why is there a shark painted on this building? Why is it wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt? I have so many questions.

#urbansketching #urbansketch #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 12. It rained last night and the sun was brilliantly lighting up the fluffy storm clouds. The saguaro next to me was starting to die, so it had become yellow, thin, and wrinkly. Oil pastel can create great texture. Messy, but so much fun!

#landscape #pleinair #oilpastels

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 11. I really enjoyed drawing all the different lines in this one. I ended up changing the perspective a bit unintentionally, but I like it.

Pitt Pen and watercolor on mixed media paper.

#urbansketch #urbansketching #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth day 10. My main goal today was to do a casual sketch of the park and draw as many people as I could in the time I had. If you count the shadows, I drew 9 people.

Pentel Color Pens and micron pen on mixed media paper.

#landscape #pleinair #urbansketching

Day 9 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. I was planning to do a more simple drawing today and then I saw this tree lit up in the sunset.

Pitt Pens and watercolor on mixed media paper.

#landscape #pleinair

#DesertPleinAirMonth Day 8. I decided to oil paint today. It is really a challenge to set all of that up in time to actually paint before the light dissappears. I liked creating the texture on the saguaro. It turns out that a pallet knife was the best tool for that job.

#pleinair #landscape

Day 7 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. Today, the weather was cold, rainy, and cloudy, so I decided to go with black and white. I liked the look of the clouds on the mountains with these gnarled dead bushes.

Pitt pen and watercolor on mixed media paper.

#landscape #pleinair #sketchbook #watercolor

Day 5 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. I sat staring at a very boring and dreary cloudy sky for 35 minutes hoping that some beautiful sun rays might poke out right before the sun went down and they did!

Micron pen and watercolor on cold press paper.

#pleinair #landscape #lineandwash #watercolor

Day 4 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. Today I tried out some oil pastels at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. I was really glad that I brought a small 24 set when I could only find a rock to sit on. Making the little flowers and scratching in their stems was a lot of fun.

#oilpastels #pleinair #landscape

#DesertPleinAirMonth Day 3.

Pitt Pens, orange Posca paint pen, and colored pencil on Strathmore toned paper.

#pleinair #sketching

Day 2 of #DesertPleinAirMonth. This was just a quick monochromatic sketch I did at a park nearby. My dog makes a cameo in the second picture hahah.

Pitt Pen and watercolor on Strathmore mixed media paper.

This year, I am going to do one month of plein air during March since it's just too hot here to wait until April. I'm going to call it #DesertPleinAirMonth. I spent day one at the Grand Canyon. That was fun! Bill took some great photos while I was sketching.

#protectourparks