It was a beautiful day today and the cherry trees are in full bloom. I sat out in the backyard and sketched this in about 20 minutes.
I tried two new things. First of all I made a paper texture in Photoshop using a combination of the Messotint and Grain filters. You can see a little of the original texture at the base of the tree. I then used a large transparent brush to paint in the the rich blue sky.
The other thing I tried was to paint without my glasses on. I’m extremely nearsighted. I attempted to paint what I saw in order to achieve an impressionistic rendering. At the very end I put my glasses back on to add a little detail. This “trick” really worked. It helped me ignore the details and see the whole. I became much more aware of colors and values and basic shapes.
