Off to Grimsel Pass

A few weeks ago, my partner and I took another road trip with the Toyota Supra, this time a short one to the Swiss Alps! It was his dream to drive through the Grimsel Pass. And what spectacular views to see! Whilst I was there, I made a few sketches on my art journal everyday to get some inspiration for my next artwork. And here we go!

Pencil Sketch

I decided to make this a colored pencil sketch. Landscapes work well with them, and I also wanted to have more practice using pencils again. Strathmore’s Colored Pencil Sketchbook (11″x14″) was chosen due to its top quality paper and my wonderful experience with it. So first a light graphite pencil sketch: Me and my partner having a break in the middle of nowhere, parking the car and admiring the views. Look how amazingly blue the lake lies and how breathtaking the mountains stand. Some glaciers too! Now that was quite something.

Time to Color!

And here is the fun part: Coloring it all in! This time, I went for Holbein’s Colored Pencils which come in a wide range of shades, including pastel, metal and even fluorescent. Only a few were selected for this, though, as I wanted to practice blending colors and working on strokes to create textures effectively, both techniques I need to improve on. Deciding on which colors went where was also a challenge because the aim was to get the painting looking as unified as possible. I did enjoy every moment of this though, as the challenges became adventures. Consequently, it took a few days to complete this piece as I wanted to take my time over it. And here we have it!

Challenges aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this session. It further goes without saying that coloring, especially with colored pencils, can be quite therapeutic as it focuses on repetitive strokes and playing with different colors. The brighter the better of course! I myself certainly felt more relaxed working on this piece, especially as it involves our short holidays to the mountains, not to mention looking forward to how kawaii the sketch will turn out to be. And it has indeed turned out that way!