Adding opacity to the painting, Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park

Another weekend excursion joining the SF Sketchers. Honestly I would have never noticed the lake (Stow Lake) and boathouse had the meetup not taken place there. Since I usually bike through the park, I never paid attention to this lake off the main road. 

Since I arrived very close to the end time of the meetup (insert blame on lack of motivation on weekend and SF traffic) I quickly got to work as soon as I parked my car. This little snippet is probably only a few steps away from my car, but it had a nice shade and a perfect view to test out adding gouache to watercolor. Ever since I saw James Gurney's video on drawing a water scene with gouache, I was hoping to attempt it myself. The combination of blue highlight, greenish refection in the distance (transparent), and the closer warm shadows from the trees (somewhat opaque) really makes a perfect testing ground. 

I'd say the drawing turned out much better than I thought, given I had very limited time.  The opacity really added body to the painting and put more weight to the shadow area. 

After finishing the show-and-tell session, I followed what everyone else had drawn and headed for the stone bridge. The green of the water really stood out, so I tried to bring it out as much as possible. The dark areas with added gouache really bring out the contrast with the bright green. Several boats/paddleboats made their way through the bridge, so I put two in also ;P

The Chinese Pavilion is the centerpiece of Stow Lake, situated on the island. I decided not to get too close to the pavilion (mostly because I was tired and hungry and still munching on my boathouse hotdog) and drew it from across the lake. The sunlight was shining at a nice angle on the roof of the pavilion, and gouache was able to save the day again by allowing me to add a few white beams back to the pavilion~

Painting spree continues in...Golden Gate Park!

I continued my painting spree the next day in a beautiful Spring in SF's Golden Gate Park. Our meetup group's real reason was to sketch the blooming rhododendrons (that have big magenta pink flowers cluttered together) However, there were so many things going on in the park (radio-controlled steam boat racing, biking, people walking their dogs, etc) that our group all got distracted and scattered around the park. I remembered bring some snacks for lunch so I didn't end up starving to death in the park this time!

I parked my car in the nearby neighbourhoods of Ocean Beach and then biked to Golden Gate Park after saying to my friend who lives nearby. I was so wrong about the parking situation in the park, thinking it was going to be very crowded on a pleasant Sunday noon. Actually there are a lot of places to park along the roads, especially that I have a bike to roam around. 

People watching the radio-controller model boat race. I intended to draw the dog enjoying the sun with its owner, but by the time I got back to colouring it, the pair was long gone....oh well. Apparently the tree whose trunk I sat on when doing this piece is called a tea tree. (Still named so even though nobody uses its leaves to make tea anymore) It has a very twisted and worn trunk and a nice shade, perfect for sitting and sketching!

Next I got around to the rhododendrons groves. But the big tree in the middle of the grove was so elegant and eye-catching I ended up sketching that instead. (A fellow sketcher's bike was parked next to it) I tried to use more raw colours than mixing neutral grays this time

After finishing the piece in the grove, I was feeling really cold (because it was damp and shaded between the trees) so I got on my bike and took a small tour through the park. Just as I rode into the no-car zone, I saw a small fall spilling into a pond. I never noticed it before (maybe because of the draught last few years) and really liked the green colour of the pond. I quickly pulled this piece together in 15 mins before I need to rush to the nearby cafe to share sketches with fellow sketchers.