Angel Island and Corona Heights

I can't get enough of Angel Island. Some days fog obscures its feet, so it seems to float on a cloud in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Sometimes it rises out of the blue-green water with barely any clouds above, and the white isosceles triangles of sailboats cutting up the waves with white slashes in front of.

It's got such interesting shapes and textures. Like all the hills around here, it changes color through the season from lush green all over in the winter to a mix of parched browns and yellows dotted with greens in the summer.

So, of course, I've been trying to paint it. On the summer solstice, I went to Yerba Buena island, which turns out to have a great view of Angel Island, and got my favorite painting of it so far.

Angel Island sketch #

For a change, I sketched it first, to get the proportions. I didn't get it totally right, but it was a helpful reference.

Angel Island watercolor #

Then I did another, lighter sketch, taking what I learned from the first and painted the island as I saw it.

Angel Island watercolor, green variation #

Later, at home, I did two simplified studies from the same sketch. Rather than trying to get all the detail of colors and the water, I used a simplified palette. One of the studies focused on green colors.

Angel Island watercolor, brown variation #

The second simplified study focused on brown colors.

Corona Heights watercolor #

Two week later, I used the same approach to paint Corona Heights looking it at it from Bernal Hill. I was originally just going to sketch it so I used one of my practice papers rather than 100% cotton watercolor paper, but then I really liked the sketch and painted over it anyway. I quite like how it came out. I'm still learning how to give the feeling of fog and clouds. Just as with the botanicals earlier, it turns out sketching makes a big difference.