Water at Yellowstone

Water plays a huge part at Yellowstone. In the park, you’re never far from a rive, lake, waterfall, pool or a geyser.

These first two sketches aren’t at the park, though. They’re both on at Ousel Falls near Big Sky, Montana.

Ousel Falls, Big Sky, Montana

I’m usually reluctant to talk about sketching fast, because I don’t think that speed is something you necessarily need to work at. Unless you want to. I naturally work pretty quickly, and here’s what I can say about it: being able to work fast means I am more likely to attempt to sketch something even when I have a short bit of time. It also means I can sketch on trips and hikes with my family without making any major changes to our plans.

On this little hike, it was just me and my son. I asked if he’d mind hanging around 15 minutes while I sketched the main falls (sketch below). He was fine with it and set me a 15 minute timer. When it went off, I begged for 2 extra minutes to add in some highlights. A second timer was set. When it went off, I packed up.The sketch was called done. That probably saved me from overworking this one.

Ousel Falls, Big Sky, Montana

This view is from the trail leading to the Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Sometimes the water bit of a landscape seems tiny compared to the rest of it. Then I remember that that little feature carved this whole place into what it is.

On the Lower Falls trail, looking at Upper Falls. Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

This last one is Old Faithful, again. Sketched this time from the side of the boardwalk that tourists don’t line up at. It’s really the best place to watch from. You get an unobstructed view, and when the geyser goes off, a stream of super-hot water runs from it and right by you.

Here’s a shot of the sketch in progress. I started on it while I waited, then built the sky up around the plume of the geyser as it went off.

Old Faithful. Yellowstone

And that is it for my summer trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. I hope you enjoyed coming along through these sketches.

if you missed any bits of the trip, here are previous posts in this series:

Off to the Grand Tetons
Grand Teton National Park
More from the Grand Tetons
The Geysers of Yellowstone
North Yellowstone
Color at Yellowstone