My Travels - Death Valley Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Lone Tree in Death Valley National Park. I captured this image in the morning hours while waling around the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. With this one mesquite type tree, it seemed the perfect focus for this area in Death Valley National Park. But it was after converting to black & white that this image really came out. The nearby whites of the tree and sand dunes where a great tonal contrast to the dark blacks of the skies above. This conversion to black & white also brought out a starkness that wasn't quite as apparently when seen with the eyes and color present. The original image I posted here on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/14723335@N05/28880726740/in/album-7...).

For the digital painting, I continued my use of some pastel and ink type brushes I'd read and seen in videos from Kyle Webster. He offered many for use with Adobe Draw on iPad...and with my Apple Pencil, they really shined with ease of use. I felt this was even more the case with the sketching or pencil look I wanted. My first focus was on the details in the nearby tree. As this was the first sketching I'd done in black & white in some time, I went back and forth, erasing what I'd started to better get that feel of a pencil and brush stroke look. After the detail portion of the sketch, I could then use tonal contrasts to complement and fill in details for the rest of that portion, whether in shadow or light. Using ideas from a friend painter, I added more to the sketch and painted image with more clouds. My thinking was to add "something" to the skies rather than being a dark negative space. .

In the left foreground of the digital painting, you'll find that stick figure image of me "hiking" with my Cubbies hat, loving my time exploring the Death Valley and that part of California...a beautiful way to start a day in this national park!

Taken in: United States / California / Stovepipe Wells Airport (show map)

Taken on: December 9, 2017

Tags:

Digital Painting

Adobe Draw

iPad

Art&Digital

iPad Pro Drawing

Apple Pencil

Amaragosa Range

Black & White

Blue Skies with Clouds

Creosote Bush

Day 4

Death Valley National Park

Desert Landscape

Dunes

Great Basin Ranges

Looking NE

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Mountains

Mountains in Distance

Mountains off in Distance

Nature

Old Mesquite Tree

Sand

Sand Dunes

Thimble Peak

Trip to Death Valley and California

West Great Basin Ranges

Stovepipe Wells

California

United States « less

Sets appears in: • Digital Paintings & Sketches • Death Valley National Park

Groups appears in: • * * * Art&Digital Virtual Gallery Adm. Invited Images Only P1/C3

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