I have experimented many times with blogging over there years. In fact, one of the *many* reasons my blog name is "here was there"  is a nod to the fact that I'm putting content here  that  was once was somewhere else (there).  This particular post was  initially shared on my now defunct blogpspot blog and the image has been shared oon my Instagram account  @herewasthere

In the past I have left the blog for the greener looking pastures of social media or even to try  more commercially driven websites.  But recently I have noticed  that  I still read a few blogs and often  wish that I had a good one of my own. 

For me, blogging has been about many things over the years. Mostly about my interests which have included  technology, fitness, outdoor adventure, photography, writing, and most recently art.

So with that introduction here is a blog post about, well, all of the interests stated above.

I often paint digitally.  When I do, I paint or sketch on my Samsung Note 8 using the awesome Artrage app (technology and art interests... check). 

Sometimes I paint on my phone while outdoors.... after a long hike. (outdoor adventure and fitness interests...  check).

The above painting was sketched  while I sat on a rock after a steep hike to Horsetail Falls.  This exact  place is called Horsetail Falls Trailcamp.  I have visited the place several times and love the beauty of the meadow that appears after exiting some thick pines trees.

I didn't finish this painting onsite because it started to rain but I did sketch enough and took a reference  photo so I could finish at home while remembering the hike and the moment.

It truly is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the outdoors and my art hobby.  Painting on a phone is a nifty way of doing "plein air" painting with out the need to lug around more traditional  art supplies. 

Who knew that drawing or painting a tree trunk would be so entertaining for me the last few evenings. I kind of stumbled upon a new technique while doing it. For this piece, I used a colorful and scribbly underpainting that I did with watercolor pencils and used a bigger wet brush to blend it all together before starting on the more detailed drawing on top that was done with the same watercolor pencils. I used them mostly dry for the detailed work but sometimes I did additional blending with water.

This was kind of inspired by a podcast interview John Middick did with Tracy Frein on the Sharpened Artist Podcast were they talked about doing detail on top of a somewhat chaotic underpainting. That process kind of resonated with me so I tried it here.


The paper I used was inexpensive watercolor post cards and the pencils were Caran D'Ache Museum Aquarelle and Supracolors with a few Arteza watercolor pencils. I'm learning that the opacity is strongest with with the two Caran D'Ache brands (in that order) and not great with Arteza pencil because those seemed more transparent with less pignent but but at times I wanted that transparency. Either way I'm sure I would get varied results depending on the paper and pencil combinations.


It was a fun approach, so I think I'm going to keep practicing it.