The Eucalyptus series

I haven't posted here for a very long time. Back to school time and then work were a bit eventful, and then I had so many things I wanted to talk about that I procrastinated.

So, let's start with a project I did last month. It's a series of paintings, on the same subject, slightly different, from references ( sketches and pictures) I took of a eucalyptus tree in my street. Ideally I would have made this on site every time, it wouldn't have been much of a problem...except we live in paranoid California and I don't think my neighbors would have appreciated to find me sitting in the street drawing every other day, at the same hour, on the spot. 
I started it as an exercise to see how I would improve if I was free from analyzing the scene to value subject and colors, and test different sketching tools. After 15 sketches I still favor the color pencils, but I'll let you be judge (if you feel so inclined). 
I decided to show it here like on a wall, all pictures in one post, with little shadows, on purpose, because it will be a bit confusing and I love design jokes. Enjoy!

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I made all these watercolors on postcard paper, and they will now fly to friends an family who encouraged me when I was learning to paint, as a hello and thank you!