View from the watch tower

We spent a night in a nearby city and I found a few opportunities to sketch outside.

First, a beautiful vista from the top of a fire watch tower. It was very windy up there, so I rushed to scribble out a memory before I lost my sketchbook or my hat.

And later, sitting in the shade to keep from oppressive heat, I played around with materials as I studied some nearby tree branches more closely than I had in a long time.

I didn’t sketch as much as I would have liked to on this short trip (as I rarely do), but the time spent studying that fir tree was particularly pleasant. There’s something magical and luxurious about sinking time into a single object to understand it deeply.