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| The river when I arrived |
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| The river when I left |
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| The sketch of the river |
While biking along the Chattahoochee River, I came upon an
observation deck that had a view of a bend of the river. It was early morning
when I arrived, and the whole view was various shades of gray and green. The
water was a murky brown and was higher than I had ever seen it before. The
trees were hard to discern as they all melded into a gray mix. I didn’t notice
it at the time, only after I finished drawing, but the water was not just a
solid gray with random darker spots, but that the darker spots were actually reflections
of the trees surrounding the river and of the light gray sky above the
Chattahoochee. The river looked gray because the sky was gray, and when the sky
cleared up and brightened by the time I finished, the water became a similar shade
of blue. Over the course of the drawing, the entire scene had changed. Geese
flew into the view for a little while, and a single kayaker paddled his way
into view, both being added to the sketch. The geese had brown and white wings, and there were a parallel flow to the feathers of the wing. Little ripples permeated the water,
moving in parallel lines perpendicular to the flow of the river. Many trees
were dead and leafless from the winter, their branches sprouting from the trunks
like a fountain. Some trees who had kept their leaves sprung forth from the
leafless bunches or from the top of the hills.
Bright green bushes, half hidden from the trees, burst out at odd
intervals from the base of the tree line. Where the land met the water, a dark
line appeared that I hadn’t before. The walkway where I was biking was visible for
only a second as a black and yellow line, the road and the cars just behind it.
The tree nearest to me seemed to be mostly gray but had a large brown patch on
its underside. It had a small branch that curved onto itself, which seemed odd
to me. I noticed a similar branch on the tree behind it. The tree behind it was
sitting fully in the water, with a small green bush poking out from the bottom
of it. Between this tree and the deck where I sat were a couple of reeds below
the water’s surface. A sign is right behind this tree, with the back of the
sign being a darker gray than the pole that held it up. This scene connected to
me due to its overarching beauty. The man-made elements (the road, boardwalk,
and any signs) were mostly hidden and I could enjoy nature by itself. The
colors struck me the most. Everything was shades of gray and green, and the
light struck from the side (de Botton 225). I wanted to capture the colors as
much as anything (although this ruined many of the details in the sketch, such
as branches which were soon covered up by color. I then tried to darken these
spots, but this did not help). I appreciated the large-scale beauty of it, as
well as all the details that made everything so intricate, but the trees and
all of these details made it very hard to draw anything accurately. I did enjoy
drawing again and with this extra free time, hope to get back into it.
Botton, Alain De. The Art of Travel. Hamish Hamilton, 2014.
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