Road Trip sketches
Mammoth Lake, CA
My friends and I took a road trip to Mammoth Lakes over Thanksgiving weekend, and it was just what we needed after such a chaotic year. We were all ready for some relaxing time. I was really looking forward to dusting off my travel art set and trying out my new plein air setup. I used to sketch all the time, but at some point, painting on the weekends felt more like work than a fun escape. Lately, though, I've been really missing painting outdoors.
This has been especially true with the new book I’m working on. It’s all digitally painted, and I can’t shake the feeling that I miss playing with real paints.
The idea for this trip is all about having "no goal." I just want to enjoy painting without stressing about being perfect.
We left home after Thanksgiving dinner and, on a whim, booked a motel in Independence, about halfway to where we were headed. We arrived in the dark, so we didn’t see anything. But when I woke up the following day, I was blown away by how much snow there was this year! We never get this much snow in SoCal this time of year!
I got super excited and decided to paint the scenery outside our motel. Since we needed to hit the road quickly, I skipped pencil sketch and just went straight to watercolor for this little piece. That’s when I realized I had forgotten to pack my white gouache!
UGH! How can I forget about white when I'm heading to the snow?! 😱
The pressure is on! I need to be very careful to leave the paper white for the snow. Dealing with the mountains was a bit tricky, but I managed it. Things became more challenging when I tried to paint the trees! 😓
My friend joke that it’s good practice! Some old-school watercolor purists strongly believe in never using any white paint in their work. I’m not one of them, but now, I really need to figure out how to paint the snow without using white! 😣
Not having white paint might sound like a disaster, but actually, it turned out to be a fun little challenge! On the other hand, I did run into another hiccup... I remembered to pack clean water refilled for painting, but I kept forgetting to bring the bottle along on the hike. Oops! It's all part of the adventure, right? 🤪
I always start with the landscape paintings, and if I have a little extra time, I like to create mini ink sketches using the leftover paint water. These sketches aren't very good, but they are fun to draw.
On our last day, we stopped by the Mono Lake visitor center, and I came across a flyer about local birds. It had a picture of this adorable little guy on it. I just had to paint it!
If you're interested in finding out more about the art supplies I used during my trip, I’d love to share my Amazon Art Store with you!
You'll find all my favorite painting essentials there.
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Happy Creative Day! 🧡
you are so talented and those are beautiful! I especially like the panoramic mountains!
Love your paintings!