On 2-26-2016, I took a last-minute trip to Yosemite National Park with a couple of friends. I took some pens, a sketchbook, and my iPhone.

Yosemite. I had never been there before. And it was great. I love cliffs, and I love trees. The only thing missing was the ocean, cliff-side, but that’s okay: there were plenty of rivers, creeks, and waterfalls.

I was sketching with my new Pentel Pocketbrush brushpen. It’s pretty nice, but it does require a different type of control than a regular sable brush. It’s extremely convenient and pretty fun to draw with.

Because I was sketching, I cared mostly about getting the essence of my subject down on paper – the shapes, the lighting, some details, and done. I wanted to study the form of these natural formations and landscapes using black-and-white illustration techniques to convey what is usually conveyed in color. For example, sketching a waterfall with a brushpen? Not easy. I tried two different techniques. At first, I tried to draw the generic shapes of the splash and spray, but the linework just got mixed in the linework of the rock. I then looked up some Chinese brush illustrations of waterfalls and picked up a thin, short hatching technique. It worked out a bit better.

It was a great trip. I got to get out of work, get out of the city, and just relax in the great outdoors, all while practicing drawing landscapes. The only way to get better at drawing the outside world is to draw the outside world, right?