The story behind "Canyon"

Back in my facebook days, I loved looking at the vacation photos my friends posted. The landscapes especially spoke to me, calling my attention to the beauty of the created world.

This waterfall into a canyon was one such photo. The grandness of the rocky canyon, the force of the waterfall, and the determination of the trees all interested me. I got permission from my friend and started the project.

I pulled the photo up on my laptop as large as I could make it, and sketched in great detail. I used 14 x 14 paper, because it didn't seem the canyon would feel as overpowering on a smaller scale. I might have used larger paper if I had it!

Next, I inked the lines. Ordinarily I would have used micron pens for this, but for this particular project I wanted to experiment with my dipping pen. First I experimented in the margins to be sure the dipping ink was waterproof (I scribbled a few lines, let them dry, then used a watercolor wash over top. There was no bleeding, so the ink was waterproof!). I ruined a painting once by using a non-waterproof pen and then covering the painting in washes. Never again!

The line work took hours. It was painstaking. But the canyon looked so majestic even then!

Finally came the watercolor washes. I used my travel watercolors for this piece, 12 half pans of color. I used the blues, greens, yellows, and reds. I left the sky paper white to resemble a bleak cloudy day and not draw attention away from the canyon and waterfalls.

Months later, when other friends posted the same photo, I found out it is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Since then, I see it once in a while in magazines or other travel photos and think, "Hey, that looks familiar! I painted that."

This 14 X 14 piece, Canyon, is available for a collector who has been looking for something just like it for themselves or a friend!

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