Playing - Road Trip Art

I've read of many artists who paint while in the car during long trips. I have painted while in my car, but never while it was moving! I've been intrigued, and really wanted to give it a try (not while driving, silly!), but we travel with three kids and a dog and it just seemed like a bit much.

On this last trip from Massachusetts to Ohio, I brought along my colored pencils and some watercolor pencils to play with and decided to give the car thing a try, hoping it would be more manageable that acrylics. It's tough trying to keep everything balanced, and you really have to get good at observing quickly since it all flashes by so fast. I have never really tried colored pencils, so that was interesting in itself. But then I tried some watercolor pencils and created a wash with one of those brushes that holds its own water and then did a super quick sketch over it in black marker. What fun! I am not particularly pleased with what I ended up with (see below), but it was a lot of fun and very freeing. I can see filling a sketchbook with these. Would be great to try en plain air, too. I definitely will be doing more of these sketches in the future - especially when we travel!

Road Trip 7-8-13