Big Bear Sunset - Watercolor Studies!

My whole intention for a hike in this area at this time of year was to catch the fall foliage. I think we were getting the tail end of it, but it was still pretty and colorful, and gave a very different vibe than what we’re used to in the ever-green, palmy LA. And I’m serious, these trees were HUGE. And I finally got that “lol look at me im in a tree” photo.

After a small hiccup where we weren’t exactly sure which fork to take, we finally ended at Grand View, which as you will see below, is very aptly named!

By now the sun was beginning to set, so I needed to act fast for painting. The temperature was dropping about a degree a minute, too. I started with what I’d intended to be a more developed sketch of the actual viewing point, but with the sun not slowing down its descent, and with the sky doing a myriad of beautiful things, I called it early and moved on to just color studies (but of course still time for taping my edges)

See below some candids of yours truly at work dressed as a (cold) dumpling

Below is the final product. You can see the first sketch I did that I mentioned before, and the sharp decline in detail following it haha. The second study I did directly below it was of the beautiful gradient the sky had created during the sunset. Even in Joshua Tree, I’d seen this and I definitely wanted to record it (although it looks a bit washed out in photograph). I used wet on wet washes for this to get that smooth, blended look. The dark purple is supposed to be the mountains, but the paper was still wet when I put it on, so even though the general shape came in, it isn’t as crisp as I’d initially intended…but I actually kind of like it. The final result looks pretty abstract, but when I look at it, I still remember the inspiration. Plus it’s pretty lol.

The final study I did wasn’t as wet-on-wet heavy, and instead relied on a lot of intensity, since the contrast in the sky was so striking. There was some blending done, but I was struggling with not having a muddy sky with the orange and blue mixing. I still think it’s a bit messy, but again, it gets the point across for me. And if you put it at one end of the room and stand on the other side, it actually doesn’t look so bad! #impressionism

By the time I finished the last sketch, it was really cold and the sun was nearly gone. I quickly packed up and we bounded back down the hike at an extremely brisk pace best described as “holy shit we cold.” The paper was still wet as well, so I was carrying my sketch book and flapping it every so often, hoping for it to dry quickly.

About an hour later, with both phones on flashlight mode since it was very, very dark (again, very glad I was not alone for this), we finally made it back to the car and did about 5 minutes of stargazing before heading back down the mountain. By now the temperature was in the 30s, and had dropped so low the pressure gauge in my tires dinged at me. But as we got lower in elevation and higher in temperature, it got sorted out on its own.

So that was my trip to Big Bear! I’d love to visit again to do some sledding, and again during warmer months, and maybe do some camping and certainly some fishing and kayaking. There are also a ton more trails I want to explore, and honestly, 2.5 hours isn’t that far of a drive… I say this too after having done 16 one way for Oregon… but that will be in the next blog post!

Thank you for reading! Have you ever been to Big Bear? Or hiked at night? Let me know!

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