Study for a New Watercolor

This was done on location on the Wilcox Mesa/Douglas Preserve.

I was drawing directly onto a quarter sheet of watercolor paper The sketch was so light that I had to really tweak it during the scanning process to get the pencil lines to show up. It does not look so great, you may be thinking. Remember that it is a work in progress. I have not entered any shading yet, and shading is what really makes things click. I purposely did not add any shading, or any shadows, because, for one thing, when I go back there to paint it, it may be a different time of day, and thus the shadows will have moved. Furthermore, I can use this scan as a template and transfer it onto many sheets of watercolor paper and then paint the scene at different times of day. I like this idea, because I have put a lot of time into this drawing, and chances are, the first watercolor I do on it may not be perfect.