The weather cooperated nicely for today’s Paint-out at Belle Isle. It turns out the Aquarium is closed on Wednesdays, so we met up at the Koi pond instead. The benches nearby gave us a nice vantage point to paint both the pond and Conservatory, as well as plenty of flowers in bloom. Keeping with my sketch from the last paint-out at the zoo, I opted to do a long panoramic painting across both pages of my sketchbook. I roughed out my design with my warm grey copic multiliner, before adding the watercolor. My pond is bigger than in real life and technically I couldn’t see the koi from where I was sitting, but that’s the beauty of art. You do what you want!

I really like this photo I took before starting my sketch. I couldn’t see it too well in the bright light but when I pulled up my photos at home, this one stood out to me. I may have to paint this scene soon. You can see the scaffolding on the side of the conservatory, but the majority of the scaffolding has been removed from around the outside. You can see that they still have it up inside. I can’t wait to visit once the renovations are complete.

Have you ever visited Belle Isle in Detroit?