If you paint in watercolors, don’t go to Santa Fe without Potter’s Pink in your palette. YOu’ll need it to paint all the wonderful colors you see in adobe structures everywhere. Even when I wanted to achieve warmer more ochre-based or more pink or purple tones on my buildings I’d add some Potter’s Pink to the mix, just for the granulation.
Here’s a couple of views of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe, using watercolor and a watersoluble grey pencil.
Adobe is mud mixed with water and organic matter .It can be formed into bricks or just formed into structures free-form. It can take on so many colors, depending on the mix of ingredients and on the light. In the very first sketch, most of the structures lay in the shadows with the morning sun just hitting that highest bit. My second sketch was on an overcast day, when the adobe looked pretty flat.
And here’s a little home on Sunset Street, which I walked down many mornings from our rental to downtown Santa Fe. This time, the house was bathed in a gorgeous light.
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 
Hi Suhita, enjoying your New Mexico sketches, your observations on potter’s pink is interesting.
In the fall particularly, as the light changes, the adobe casts more purple and lavender shades.
If your ever back in Santa Fe, we have a wonderful group of sketchers here , we would be happy to show you around.
Erik Madsen
My Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/120812295@N05/
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