Winter Boulder day 5 for 30 in 30 Challenge

Yes, I signed up for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. I was nervous about it but I have done four pastels in five days, so I'm only behind by one. Today's painting is a loose sketch of a winter landscape from a photo by DAK723 on WetCanvas.com, a scene I hope to revisit with an animal one of these times.

Winter Boulder

8 1/2" x 11"

Rembrandt pastels on paper

That basic drawing book I got for Christmas is getting a workout. It's handy, it's white, I don't feel bad about experimenting in it and the paper's toothy enough I can do at least general loose paintings on it. 

I have some new sanded paper too though, so I want to develop some of these things a bit more. That boulder really needs a big cat on it. My first thought was a cougar, but now I think a lynx or bobcat would fit even better, lurking to see if a rabbit or something comes down that trail. Bobcats are fun and I haven't done one stalking in the wild yet. So this is a preliminary.

For my 30 in 30 challenge, preliminary paintings do count as long as they're in pastels and in color. They have to be more than just a charcoal sketch, that's all. So far I have 4 out of 5 so that's not bad at all.

Then later tonight I did a little watercolor sketch of Ari cat for a sketching challenge - use primary colors. So I painted a brown cat in primaries.

Ari cat in Primary colors watercolor

Little horses in Winsor & Newton watercolor markers

I sketched Ari from life of course and the little horses are from a Johannes Vloothuis watercolor demo.