The top sketch was done en plein air while at Brady's beach. It was quite cold that day and I was sitting on my life vest on top of a log that had frost coming out of it as the morning warmed up a bit. I worked on a page in my sketch book that I had toned in blue along with some mark-making done with a couple of stamps I had made. I did this background preparation before I left home. I worked on site using a soft water soluable graphite pencil and later in the whale lab I added in the white washes to the sky and water.
The two photos I took that morning as well, but it was only a few minutes ago that I compared the sketch to the photos.