I visited Cross Keys Vineyards during my recent mini-vacation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I blundered around a semi-rural area for more than an hour before I finally found the wine palace on its vine-covered hill. I made the original of this drawing on the elegant courtyard of Cross Keys. You can see the Blue Ridge in the distance. This time I made sure to ask my hosts whether I could make a drawing on their site. Earlier in the day I perturbed the elderly proprietor of a country store when I spent too much time parked drawing in their parking lot; she thought I was in distress or doing something nefarious. One rule of on-site drawing: always ask permission to be there for a while if there are people there. Most of the time unless you are doing your outdoor art way off in the wilderness, someone is there watching you.
I admit that this image is a composite. I made a lot of alteration to the original ink and colored pencil drawing and added color to the sky and foliage to the shrub at right. I know that in the ideal world of on-site art, everything is supposed to be done right the first time and you shouldn't have to take it back into the studio and fix it, but sometimes you have to. If you're good enough with the Photoshop, no one will know.
Pitt technical pen brown ink and colored pencil on sketchbook page, 9" x 6 1/2", August 16, 2014. Click for somewhat larger view.
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