This painting is from a trip to Canyonlands and is, perhaps, my favorite from my hand-made sketchbook series. This is from the Syncline Loop trail, which treated us to golden cottonwoods in the bottoms of the canyons.

I really indulged in play in this study, using a brooding sky to get the rocks and the trees to pop with heat the way they do in the fall. The pastel adds highlights in the leaves while the ink creates dramatic lines and shadows.