A few pictures of Zion National Park. I've been there many times and am always in awe of the beauty of the Park. There are so many trails you can take, and even on a hot day you can find a canyon that is nice and cool.
I've been on the edge of cliffs with sheer dropoffs of probably a thousand feet. I've hiked up creeks and river, under waterfalls and through small ponds. I've also trod across trails that are so hot and dusty it seemed like I would burn up.
Here are a few sketches of Zion. The Narrows. The Watchman. Angels Landing.
I can't wait until I can go back again. it is such and amazing place.
Here is my representation of a bridge over a river in Zion National Park. I've been to Zion many times, and it is truly one of natures most stunning places. At least if you like that desert, canyon kind of thing. The red rocks of the cliff faces tower over the valley floors. I don't think there is one place you can go in the park that doesn't have stunning views.
I believe this bridge is at the beginning of the path to Angels Landing. You cross this bridge, then into refrigerator canyon, up Walter's Wiggles, and out across a some very thin rock faces, to the precipice. The last half mile of the trip is not for the faint of heart. There will be thousand foot drop offs, and path's with seemingly no handholds and almost no footholds. But if you make it out to the end, the views are terrific. The last time I went, it was in the mid 70's on the canyon floor, and by the time I got about 1/2 way out to the end, it started snowing, and got quite windy. I didn't know if I should hurry to fight the cold, slow down to combat the wind, or just turn back. In the end, I just soldiered on and made it to the end. Some German hikers were nice enough to let me warm my finger by the camp stove they had carried with them.
As for this paintings, I think I got a few things right. the distant mountain really distant, the close mountain is close. The trees are definitely closer than the mountain and they have a little depth to them. True there could be a little more, but there is some. Even the water looks like it gets closer as it reaches the bottom of the page.
I might try this one again. Or at least I'll do some other paintings from Zion. As with many of my recent paintings, i did a video to go with this. If you are interested in seeing how I did it, you can see the video below. Thanks for taking the time to view and read.
Some good and some bad on this painting. Lets start with the good.
I was gonna do a dark sky, or at least darker, but when I saw how this one turned out after only one layer of paint, I liked it so much I stopped. And knowing what the sky looks like in Zion most of the time, there are no clouds anyway, so the sky seems about right. The next thing that is really good, I think, are the mountains in the background. They really do look like they are far away. Just enough detail so you can see a few crevasses in the rocks, but not too much detail that its out of place. I really like them.
Now for the not so good. I don't think i got quite the right shape of this hill. It is, in general, dome-ish, which I got, but somehow its not quite right. I might go back and see if I cant make the far side of the path fall off just a bit, maybe that will help it look like it is rounder.
I might go back and pencil in some chains like on the real pathway, but I don't have time to do it today, but wanted to get this picture up. If I make changes, I'll repost. Hope you all enjoy.
The first one is obviosly the bad one. It turned out carrots again. I loosened up a lot on the second one. It turned out much better. It did mean changing the picture a bit, but I think I kept true to what the inspiration picture is.
This is another picture where I feel like I've learned a lot by painting it. It was hard for me not to try to recreate the painting as I saw it, but once I changed the look of what I was doing, it made loosening up a lot easier.
I think I'm making progress. I've removed the snow and made it a more spring or summer scene. This is also my third attempt at getting the striation and shadowing on the cliffs. I am happy with the way the cliff on the right looks like it is so much further back than the one on the left.
A few pictures of Zion National Park. I've been there many times and am always in awe of the beauty of the Park. There are so many trails you can take, and even on a hot day you can find a canyon that is nice and cool. 
