Yellowstone

Gibbon Falls is magnificent ! It is one of the falls which is close to you. Most of the others are off in the distance or a lengthy hike away. 

Fly fishermen everywhere... drag a moist brush, for the drybrush effect for the rippling water effect. Keep the brush head flat to the paper surface.

I sketched the right page first , as it has the main elements for this two pager.

Left page detail...

Right page...  the greatest contrast is established by the dark pines behind the downed tree.

This ridge line is behind you , as you view Gibbon Falls.  Keep it simple!!

Plenty of other stuff there to sketch, as I like old machinery...

Original ink line sketch of an old historic store in West Yellowstone, MT.

The week at Yellowstone  went too fast!!

This trash receptical was the only time I saw Old Faithful 'do its thing'.

On to the Grand Tetons...

Detail, left page...again, perfect weather was with us...

Right page is the feature of the two pages .

Another old tree serves as a monument  to the past. Note that the highlights on the trunk branches looks 'whiter' than the actual white paper. That is due to the contrast with the darks in the background.

A trip to Jackson Hole would not be complete without a sketch of the historic Moulton barn. I made the mountains larger than life, so that they were more important, s they may be ten miles away. 

I was constantly faced with fantastic rock outcroppings. Again, simplicity was the key and softening the background shapes. A reminder; think shapes, NOT things (mountain, car, building, people, etc)

On location, the atmosphere was so clear that the background shapes looked like they were very close to the foreground mountain, so, I made them lighter and cooler to push them back.

On to Wyoming ... Looks like a giant sand pile around this mountain, as the stone had dissolved. The tiny red barn was needed to show the scale relationship to the mountain.

A visit to Mt Rushmore, the ongoing Crazy Horse sculpture project. and  a day in Sturgis, SD, sax it preps for the annual 'bikers reunion' were all sites to see - at least once! 

The trip was only complete, after a real steam train ride out of Keystone, SD.

No 'Indian' attacks or hold ups, just a nice two hour ride thru the Black Hills!