Day One: Kualoa from Waiahole

 

Pencil drawing, Kualoa from Waiahole

I have a new project-- I will be creating a pencil drawing a day. 

Let's start with a drive to the small community of Waiahole, located on Oahu's windward coast. Green Waiahole Valley is rich in Hawaiian history, with fertile land, watered by the heavens, and where taro, the staple food, flourished and nourished. 

From Waiahole, I sketched this view of beautiful Kualoa ("longback"),  which is kissed by the area's rich Ka'a'awa Valley, sacred burial caves, cattle ranch, and soaring Koʻolau Mountain Range. 

With such breathtaking vistas to soak in, it is no wonder that dozens of Hollywood films have been filmed here. I explored the area extensively during my boy scout days, and remember the rich Hawaiian folklore and maybe even heard the drumbeats of the night marchers on full moon nights. 

"Drawing is not what you see but what you must make others see."

 Edgar Degas

2012 Koolau - Koolau from Kaneohe District Park

I have been painting mountains closer to my house recently. This is the neighboring ridge to my house. The painting above is painted in the afternoon during a cloudy day. The cloud's diffused light made all the purple colors.

Above is the same ridge painted early, in a clear morning. The light was a little softer then I made it. However, I was really happy with how I was able to plan this painting out. It was a really good exercise in watercolor planning. I utilized both my fountain pens, marking the highlights in red and the deep shadows in brown.

The effect looks pretty neat... I may have to try it a few more times.

"Watercolor condenses time and consolidates experience."

~Frank Marcello

2012 Koolau - Three Ridges

So this installment of the 2012 Koolau book comes from my drives home on Kamehameha Highway. As I'm driving home in the late afternoon, the sky is white with the perpetual cloud-cover of the Windward side of the island. There is a great view of three ridges of the Koolau Mountains, silhouetted against the hazy sky and against each other.  

I had to make a detour one afternoon and drew these ridges as the sun was setting.

The first ridge has the small tunnel of the H3 interstate going through it. I debated whether or not to include it. I decided against it because the painting looked so good without it.

In this painting, the clouds go a little thinner as the sun began to vanish. This painting lost a lot of the details captured in the first one. I still like the silhouettes.

"What is magic? In the deepest sense, magic is an experience. 

It's the experience of finding oneself alive within a world 

that is itself alive. It is the experience of contact and communication 

between oneself and something that is profoundly different 

from oneself: a swallow, a frog, a spider weaving its web."

 ~ David Abram

2012 Koolau - Kualoa Beach Park

These watercolors done at Kualoa Beach Park. I did them in the same trip as these. 

The sunlight was fading and I wanted to start the drive home. As I was walking back to the car I was awestruck by the way the light was hitting the mountain. It looked so blue against the gray sky. I sat at a traffic barricade next to my car and quickly sketched out these two paintings.

I am rather happy with this painting now. For a while, it remained a half finished sketch in watercolor. There were some moments where I thought of abandoning it, I really didn't like it. Mainly because I really messed up the shape of the mountain. 

It is a little darker then I would have liked it. That is more of a by product of the multiple layers of paint on this one.

Before I got back in my car I did a quick contour line drawing of the mountain. The dim light obscured all the ridges of the mountains.  There was just a strong shape of the mountains against the sky.

I really like what the paint is doing in this painting. The star-bursts from where the watercolor pooled on the page look really sharp. I was pretty lucky with them as they can be a very fickle thing.

"Watercolor is like life.

 Better get it right the first time – you don't get a second chance!" 

~Sergei Bongart

2012 Koolau - Mokoli'i

So last Tuesday was election day in the United States. To avoid being online constantly clicking the update button on the Huffington Post, I decided to drive around the island and go to the beach and paint.

Both these paintings are of Mokoli'i or Chinaman's Hat, because of its resemblance to a straw hat. The Hawaiian legend of this island deals with a giant lizard or Mo'o and a great Hawaiian warrior defeating it and throwing its tail into the water. The tail is the island of Mokoli'i.

This is at Kuoloa Beach Park. It was bright when I got there and by the end of the drawing session it was getting kind of cloudy. I think I captured the change in light pretty well.

My mom did a celebration of this special place on her website, dailycelebrations.com.

"Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; 

the turning out to the light the inner folds 

of the awareness of the spirit. 

It is the recreation on another plane 

of the realities of the world; 

the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men,

 and of all the inter-relations of these." 

~Ansel Adams

2012 Koolau - Sunsets

I seriously debated how to post this next few sections of Koolau 2012. Mainly because they span two parts I have been working on with this sketchbook so far: views of the Koolau Mountains and views of Olomana.

Both of these drawings were done around the sunset hours.

Above is a view of Olomana from Enchanted Lake. It is a really great view of all three peaks. I worked on this after school one day and the mountains had such a pretty purple color.

This is a view from Kailua High School. A similar view I have painted before. I really wanted to draw the sky. I am unsure how this one came out. It is not my favorite of this series. I think I lost a lot of the details in the mountains.

2012 Koolau - Olomana II

So here are last two of my landscapes from Sunday. Again, I must say that I have really been captivated by Mount Olomana. Above was painted at Olomana Community Park. The sun was much brighter. I love how the red ink looks on this painting.

This was my favorite painting of the morning.

This second painting is the view is from Maunawili Elementary. It actually is a great view of the first two peaks of Olomana. I am a little sad that the red ink from the previous page bled into the sky of this page. However, it still looks really good.

"All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life."

 ~ M.C. Richards

2012 - Koolau - Olomana I

I spent Sunday taking great delight in creating watercolor paintings of Mount Olomana located on the Windward side of Oahu, near my home in Kaneohe.

I learned from the Wikipedia article that the word "Olomana" means "divided hill" in Hawaiian. There are also names to all three peaks of the mountain. The first is called also called Olomana, the second is Paku'i,  and the third is Ahiki.

There is no end to the information on Wikipedia.  Or to my ongoing education.

I finished a total of four paintings. I will post two of them today and the last two in a few days.  I am struck by a number of things.  Above is a view from Olomana Community Park, and is very much the iconic view of Olomana.
 
The above picture was painted on October 28 at 9:20 in the morning. There was a real softness to the morning light that I tried to capture. There is a nice blue tinge to everything.

This painting above is a view from Kailua High School's baseball field.  The little bump on the left side is actually more of the Ahiki (backside) Ridge which is almost as long as the right peak. 

The second work was painted closer to noon--about 11:30-- and the noon sunlight is a lot more dramatic and harsh.

After working in Kailua for a little bit, I am finding that Olomana is really captivating as a subject and is very inspirational. I hope to use these studies for a series of larger paintings in acrylic and oil of the mountains.  I very much see these watercolors as studies for that larger project.

"Inspiration follows aspiration."

 ~ Rabindranath Tagore

2012 Koolau 1-3

I had so much fun working on the Little Mountain Book,  I began another watercolor book. This book is bigger then the small 5"x 3" book I did that group on. This new book is 8" x 5.5".

Starting on this new book I am struck with a few things: one how much longer these larger watercolors are taking me to complete and two how many more pages are in this book then the last one (43 as opposed to 26).

Mainly because of that second point I think these watercolors are going to take me the better part of the year . So I do not have that much of a problem calling this book 2012 Koolau.

I have also taken to writing one the back of them so I have things to write here. All three of these paintings were done at Kailua High School.

Above was done 10/03/12 at  9 AM

The next two are from 10/09/12. The Vog was really bad the day before, covering the mountains with a haze.  When I drove to work on the 9th it look like it had cleared a bit over the night. The landscape was really clear, no clouds or mist.

I took some time around lunch to do this watercolor. There was a slight hint of a Vog in the sky.

This is what the same mountains looked like a when I got to my car at 5. The vog was catching all the light of the afternoon. It completely obscured the ridges of the Koolau mountains. The haze shimmered in the afternoon giving the mountains a glow to them.   

"Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?

Can one really explain this? No."

 ~Pablo Picasso

Little Mountain Book 25-28

So this is the last of this sketch book.

We took a trip to Koko Head this weekend and I did the above drawing of the Koolau Mountains from the top.  It came out rather nice, I like how some of the watercolors pooled near the center of the page.

Like rain... and inspiration.

This is the entrance of Hanauma Bay, a popular snorkling spot that is located along the southeast coast of Oahu about a half-hour drive from Waikiki. My watercolor is the view as seen from the top of Koko Head.

I am not really happy with this above drawing. I had a difficult time capturing the water along the edge of the shore. This is the first time I did a shoreline watercolor and the water crests are a little tricky.

On the other hand, here are two from my hike up Ka'au Crater. The one above is overlooking Kailua. Is there anything more beautiful than Windward Oahu, my hometown?

This last one was from the climb down Ka'au Crater looking at the back of Palolo Valley. My grandparents grew up in Kaimuki, near Palolo Valley. 

Little Mountain Book 7-18

This weekend I went camping at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens. I had a good time, but as promised I had some time to do a few watercolors. I was on a roll and did 13 this weekend.  I should probably break this into 3 posts, but let's see if this will work.

Above was done Saturday morning. It is a view of Nuuanu Pali. There are still clouds caught on the mountain peak. I enjoy the detail in this one. It is a large amount of actual space to fit on such a tiny page.

OK, here is a zoom in and to the right of the last one. This is a view of the prominent rock cliff of the Pali with misty mountains in the background. I like how I rendered the mountain with the cloud on it.

 Here is another land locked view of the cliff folds of the Koolaus. I think it is a little less successful then the one in my previous trips 

This is the last one from Saturday morning. I think I managed to capture the feeling of really strong morning light hitting the mountains in this one. I am really happy with the rhythm I created in the folds of the mountains.
 

We went for a light walk around the park and I stopped at a Park bench during a break and did this one.  Looking at these paintings, after the fact, I can see the difference in the light from morning to the afternoon. I painted the shadows more crisply.  I also avoided yellow in the high lights, relying instead on the greens to cover tone changes.

It is kind of interesting to look at the changes in the next few, considering I only painted them a few hours after the ones from the morning. 

I ended up for most of the afternoon on a overlook that had a great 360 view of Kaneohe. This is Olomana and is to the left of the views of the Pali I did (The first two paintings of this post.)  Olomana  has a very neat look to it.

I particularly like the way I rendered the trees in the foreground. I was struggling with them for a bit but I like how they look here.
 

Another view of Nuuanu Pali. I really must have been drawn to them. as I did so many views of them. I think I really wanted to show the contrast of the two ridges with atmospheric perspective separating them. The mountains looks so crisp.   

I then shifted my view on the overlook to Kaneohe/Kailua instead of the Koolau Mountains. I like these two peaks. I think they are glorified hills, but I still like the way I painted them.

This was the last of the pictures I painted of the Koolau Saturday afternoon.It was also my last picture from that overlook. I really like how crisp everything looks.
  

This morning I woke up and painted three more pictures. It was rainy and there were clouds all over the Koolaus.I did this first painting from the same location as the first picture. I really like the blue/gray tone I was able to get in these.

This is of the Koolau ridge line as the clouds danced over them. I am really happy with how this came out.

I was worried it would not work. In watercolor, the white is the white of the page so it can be difficult to make white shapes look good because it represents not putting paint some where. It is one of those weird things with watercolor that so many little things can screw up.

This was the last of the paintings I did on this camping trip. I really wanted to capture the mist covered feel of the Nuuanu Pali. I like how this came out.

Little Mountain Book 1-6

So I really have been wanting to try my hands at some landscapes. I decided to warm up a little to this prospect with some starter sketches.I purchased a nice little watercolor book and headed up to Ho'omaluhia for a few hours on Sunday.

With my fountain pen loaded with ink and a bunch of watercolors, I ventured to paint the beautiful landscape of Windward Oahu. Virtually the backyard where I live.

Above isthe first landscape of the day. I really like how the red ink mixed with the watercolors making an earthy rust color as it mixed with the green and purple as it mixed with blue.

I look at the group of six and I enjoy the progression. They are getting less and less figurative and more and more abstract. This was a fun time for me.

 We have two views of the ridge line.I think I need to put more blue in future views.

 This is looking to the smaller tunnel of H-3 interstate from Ho'omaluhia.

 I tried to to do a view that was just the mountains and trees without the sky or the mountain ridge line. It is interesting to see it blown up to the size of a screen as the original is much smaller. I really like this one. 

On this last one I really wanted to get the purple mountains in the distance. I like some of the water bleeding in this one. I am unsure if this is looking quite the way I'd like.

I am going camping out at Hoomaluhia this weekend so I should have ample time to do a few more sketches. We can see what I produce this weekend.

"We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." ~ Li Po