Sketching the River

A couple of Saturdays ago my summer sketchbook and I joined the Memphis Urban Sketchers at Greenbelt Park. I love going to the river and sketching it, even though I don't do that often enough. When I first got there, I sketched a cottonwood to get myself warmed up.

Then I meant to do a thumbnail sketch, but ended up doing a two-page spread light & dark study for a larger sketch. One of the things I look for when I do a big sketch is rhythm, like the dark marks on the left side.

After all of that, I had less time to work on my big sketch, but I still got it done and am happy with it. Painting the river is always a challenge, and I like the way I did it this time - I used a mix of some colors I had already used. This one is in my 8x10 Stillman & Birn alpha that I like to use for painting out in the world. 
It was a fun morning! Everyone pretty much sketched this same scene, except for one sketcher who sketched the sketchers!