Our June Bluffton SketchCrawl was held along the walking trail of Hilton Head Lakes community.

I didn’t walk very far from the parking lot when I saw one of my favorite waterside plants blooming. It was a mostly cloudy day, but when I spied the pickerelweed, the sun broke through making me oh and ah with all the contrast on the leaves and halos around the flowers. Eye candy! For me, sketching is all about eye candy!

In honor of June being the month set aside for the online 30×30 Direct Watercolor Challenge, I approached my journal entry using this technique. Here’s the initial wash I put down to block in the shapes.

The sun kept going in and out. Thankfully, I took a picture with my phone and could reference the light and dark shapes that caught my eye in the first place. Lettering was added at home, along with some touches of white grasses in the foreground. I used Dr’ Ph. Martin’s Pen-White ink with a dip pen. It’s wonderfully opaque and is a treasured art tool in my stash!