Our second day in the cascade mountains. We spent it driving our way back home and checking out the multiple hiking spots along the way home.
It is very hard to describe how majestic and beautiful the Cascade mountains are, and the photos in no way can do them justice. But, here are a few photos of our trip back home.
This was photo of the end of the “Thunder Knob” trail. The trail wound through the mountain with views of both Ross lake and Diablo Lake dam which you can barely see in the distance here.
After our hike back we descended the mountain a bit and crossed the diablo lake dam. Where I sat on the gravel shore and sketched for about 30 minutes.
This is the scene I was trying to sketch. I loved how the light caught the snow on the mountain and it lit up like the sun. I wanted to capture its brightness so I pulled out my gray toned paper sketch book and blocked in the general shape of the landscape then focused directly on the bright white of the snow. Even the shadow cast by the mountain on the snow was spectacular.
I knew that I wouldn’t have time to get more than 30 minutes in on this sketch so I focused on a small portion where all the values from foreground to the far distance were present. My goal was to try and capture a good representation of the slight value changes caused by the atmosphere. I found it very difficult, to describe the stark contrast between the snow and the rock of the mountain yet keep the rock of the mountain light enough so it didn’t surpass the darkness of the shadows in the foreground. I could have spent hours out here, alas, here is my 30 minute sketch for the day.
