Mountain Wilderness Utah - Colored Pencil Drawing

"Mountain Wilderness Utah" Colored Pencil

The Timpanogos Wilderness in Utah is a beautiful place to visit during the late fall because of the extraordinary range of vibrant hues. Even the darkest shadows are saturated with greens, blues and violets.


The area’s rugged terrain is as varied as the landscape’s color spectrum. The giant peaks are composed of sheer rock and textured with patches of pine trees while the deep valley is a sea of dense underbrush.


The scene is a study in startling contrasts because the flaming, wavy grasses are absolutely opposed to the somber, solid mountains. The peaks have a certain architectural structure whereas the field flows.


This drawing is not about capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere, it is searching for something more eternal and monumental. There is no aerial perspective here as the space is intentionally compressed.


As the expanse of sky descends, it gradually becomes more yellow because particles from the earth below mingle with the powder blue. Mixing and matching the same colors across the entire sheet creates a nice harmony.


The mountains are spectacular with the furthest gleaming in gold and laced with streaks of white snow. The behemoth on the left is pink with purple shade while the steep foothills on the right are lit with burnt orange.


The olive-colored forest stretches across the page from side to side, creating a decorative barrier between the foreground and the background. The individual trees take on a sculptural quality due to the abrupt shading.


The bottomland is broken into planes of solid color that appear as overlapping cutouts, sparking an energy that spreads up through the composition. Interspersed here and there, soft gradients culminate in yellow highlights.


Usually, translating the experienced landscape into pigment on paper results in something less than the preconceived expectation. Sometimes, though, an unexplainable guidance leads one to accomplish a work that is unexpectedly gratifying.

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