Penn's Sketchbook

Chimes Tower at Longwood Gardens, Watercolor. 9"x12". Here's a step-by-step look at how this watercolor landscape was made.  Inspiration was rooted in many family visits to Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia. We had ice cream near this pond that features a small waterfall and a bell tower from which musical chimes can be heard playing. Step 1 I sketched out the composition, placing the tower in one of the thirds of the image.  Step 2 I placed washes of blue for the sky and green for all of the areas of foilage. I also placed base colors for the tower, dry ground, and stones.  Step 3 Next, I used richer and darker greens to make shadows in trees, bushes, and ivy on the tower. I also began coloring shadows in the tower. Step 4 I painted more shadows under leaves and stones to suggest detail, using a variety of light and dark greens.  Step 5 I painted shadows and details for the left half of the wooded area

Tyrannosaurus Rex. 9"x12" Watercolor. After seeing photos of scaly Tyrannosaurus Rex skin, I painted the picture above using colors and patterns inspired by other large reptiles. Tyrannosaurus Rex means "tyrant lizard king", although it wasn't much like any lizard today. It's resemblance was more that of a dragon walking on two feet. At 40 feet long and weighing 8 tons (14 metric tons), tyrannosaurus was enormous. It stood 12 feet tall and had bone crushing teeth the size of bananas. It isn't known whether T-Rex was a scavenger or a fierce hunter, but its forward pointing eyes could be indicators of a keen sense of sight and razor sharp focus on its prey. Here's a second Tyrannosaur painting and a reference photos taken in the wild. Mother Tyrannosaur leading her young. 6.5"x 9" Watercolor. Wild Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Smithsonian c. 2018.