Molly Hashimoto

Giant Sequoia: A Walnut Ink Sketch

When walking in the Upper Mariposa Grove back in October, we saw deer grazing beneath a giant sequoia, and it gave us a very immediate sense of the enormous scale of the the tree. This week I used my photograph, some walnut ink loaded into Niji waterbrushes, and a Pitt sepia brush pen to sketch the scene.  I buy walnut ink crystals at John Neal Books, and mix them with distilled water. This way you can determine the degree of saturation--I find the bottles of walnut ink available at art stores are too diluted for my purposes. I wet the tree area first, and then brushed in the walnut ink, using 2 different saturations, loaded into 2 different Niji waterbrushes. After the wash dried, I used the Pitt sepia pen to stroke in a few quick dark lines.  I've written about walnut ink several times in these pages, as it's my favorite sketching medium, and I'm pleased that a few of my sketches will appear in the upcoming book Sketchbook Confidential 2, published by North Light Books, and available this May.

Library Programs: Artists in the Parks

Yesterday I offered  programs at the Marysville and Granite Falls Libraries on sketching and painting in the National Parks. Many enthusiastic patrons came, all set to look at natural specimens, sketches and my photos and try their own hands at creating art inspired by the Parks. I was delighted at how warmly they responded to everything. What a fun day! We used a variety of media, which gives everyone the opportunity to see how simply and easily you can work outdoors.

Yosemite Sketches: Broadleaf Trees

This is a quick sketch of a Pacific Dogwood in fall color in a sequoia grove at Yosemite. I wet the entire paper first and all of the colors that appear out of focus were the initial stage of the sketch. After the first wash dried, I painted harder-edged leaf shapes, tree shapes and trunks and branches. The dogwoods seem very common in the sequoia groves and I probably would not have noticed them if the color had not been so striking. They must be really beautiful in spring flower, too. The sketch to the right is a Bigleaf Maple beside the Merced River on the way to Vernal Falls. The riverside was decorated with striking golden foliage along the trail, and it was most interesting to me to see the different growth habit of the bigleaf maples in Yosemite. They only grow in riparian locales, and they are so much smaller and appear more contorted than the bigleafs in the Pacific Northwest.

More North Cascades Students' Work

In October I taught a class at the North Cascades Institute: Autumn Beauty and Bounty. In our indoor time we celebrated the harvest by sketching and painting squash, corn and other fall fruits and vegetables. This still life is by Katie Roloson, curriculum coordinator at the Environmental Learning Center. In addition to her work for the Institute and all of its myriad educational programs, she is an avid climber, hiker, cyclist, and accomplished artist!

Here is Robin Pederson's study of a squash. I really admire how she revealed its shapes, both contour and bumpy details, without losing the immediacy of the sketch. It's difficult to do yellows and keep things fresh.

Robin also did this wonderful sketch of Liberty Bell. In our plein air trip to Washington Pass she painted it outdoors, but also in the classroom afterwards, created several variations on this. It was great fun watching her!

More Portland Students' Work

One of my favorite things about the workshop I taught in Portland for Sitka Center for Art & Ecology last week was the sunshine on Wednesday and getting outdoors to sketch. We all really loved the maples in the World Forestry Center parking lot, dramatically framed by conifers. Many of the students did some great work from their sketches.

Portland Students: Autumn Beauty

This week I traveled to Portland to teach a class for Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. On the day of my arrival we visited the Portland Japanese Garden, one of the finest gardens in the world. The fall color there was simply astonishing. Our workshop took place in the World Forestry Center and we were surrounded by magnificent trees, conifers and vine maples, and boulevard trees chosen for their fine fall color. We went outdoors, just outside our classroom and sketched a beautiful vine maple. Here are several students' interpretations.