nighttime magic

There is definitely a positive side to the weird sleep patterns of getting older. We were both awake in the nighttime; Bill momentarily stepped out of the RV and saw this view over the lake. He took a photo for me to sketch.

an early morning view

The colors in the eastern sky yesterday morning were very subtle, but I somehow wish that I had emphasized them more in my sketch. This is from our campsite at Lake Somerville.

starting a new sketchbook journal

This week we are camping and I planned on beginning my new sketchbook when we arrived. But it was cold and Very Windy here next to the lake, so I sat inside the RV and painted this. (It’s supposed to warm up the rest of the week.) These pebbles are a combination of watercolor and gouache. I’ve been watching Natasha Newton swatching her colors in pebble form on YouTube — Love her style! 

This sketchbook is a Seawhite Travel Journal with 200 gsm cold-press watercolor paper that I pulled from my shelf. It’s been there so long that the elastic band was stretched out (how curious!) so I cut it off. Instead, I have a heavy stretch band that holds a pencil or pen. Don’t remember where it came from.

next to the last page

Today I finished the next to the last page of this journal (after posting the last page yesterday). It didn’t turn out quite like what I had in mind — seems a bit stiff and not enough contrast in values. But I’m calling it done and moving on.

What drew me to sketch the scene were the lavender-shadowed clouds. But they seemed to fade away in the sketch. This is the view from the front of our small converted barn house looking towards our daughter’s farmhouse. I added those shrubs in the lower right corner where our barn-red house corner would be.

last page of this sketchbook

Though this is the last page of my current sketchbook, it is not the last page to be worked on. The previous page, an evening landscape, was started and is not yet finished. But today I just felt like painting something from scratch so I did this from a photo taken during a clinic visit on Monday. The pumpkins had a velvet surface.

This is sort of the direction I’d like my sketching to go: directly painting with a combination of gouache and watercolor with touches of colored pencil or Neocolor II crayons . . . maybe even a bit of ink, who knows? But working looser without so much niggling the details. Letting go of perfectionistic tendencies.

There are two other sketched pages in this book waiting for me to continue a Marty Burnham workshop I began in October. The first of those turned out to be a disaster and I haven’t taken time to get back to the course as yet. I do plan to finish the 2nd and 3rd sketches, but will probably not post those since they are not my own original work. Even the one that turned out badly has taught me a lot.

a camouflage leaf

Today is Thanksgiving day and things are mostly ready. While waiting for family to arrive, I did a quick sketch of a leaf picked up while walking with Butters. The quote from a Winnie the Pooh book popped up in an email from Peg & Awl.

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving, everyone!

a mini hike

Yesterday as I waited during Bill’s appointment with the hygienist, I painted a quick sketch in my old mini (2”) sketchbook using gouache thinly as watercolor. I used an old photo saved on my phone but made a bit up as well. Things seemed to go fine — until I added the people. My brush tip was too large, the paint too dark, proportions all wrong . . .

for the palette obsessed . . .

. . . these are a few other muted palettes I have put together. The top one is a neutral set I put together years ago. The upper two swatch cards are watercolor; the lower one, gouache.

In the neutral set from lower left: black current (Letter Sparrow), burnt umber, raw umber, perylene green, lunar blue, indigo, moonglow, volcano brown (Schmincke), sepia, titanium white gouache, buff titanium, grey of grey (Holbein), gray titanium, lunar black, and Jane’s grey. All Daniel Smith unless otherwise noted.

Click to see the paint names on the other cards.

tweaked again!

And of course, I have tweaked my new combo palette! I missed the lovely Ash Blue gouache. And living in this sunny climate, a brighter yellow might be needed — Titanium Gold Ochre is still muted, sort of like Naples Yellow. I removed the Sepia watercolor, as I can achieve its granulating brown by mixing “Random Grey” watercolor with Smoked Bamboo gouache. 

I also moved all the “browns” to one side of the mixing pan and all of the “greys” to the other — though Zoisite Genuine watercolor is more of a dark green.

Random Grey was my attempt at copying Schmincke’s one-time issue of a random grey that was a mixture of unknown pigments that will not be repeated. I stirred together Ultramarine Blue, Transparent Red Oxide, and Burnt Umber for its brownish grey tone. A spot of a cool red might have improved it.

The “Pale Green” should be a bit greener in color. I made it by stirring a bit of Perylene Black (which is a dark cool green) into Titanium White. My mixture of “Jane’s Grey” (or Payne’s Grey) could use a bit more Ultramarine to it.

By the way, the R20 short flat travel brush from Rosemary & Co has become one of my favorite brushes. My other favorites are the R13 #8 sable blend round, the R19 #12 pointed round, and a funny little flat brush from Herend.

tiny sketch challenge, done!

Leslie Stroz, an artist in the UK that I follow, began a “100 Tiny Treasures” art challenge earlier this year to create 100 tiny paintings during 2025. I decided to do 50 instead — less pressure and that’s all that would fit in my tin box! Today I did my 50th painting, the Nuthatch in the above group, from a photo prompt Leslie posted on her Patreon site.

The second photo shows the whole pile of my tiny sketches, and the third photo shows them inside my favorite plaid tin (yes, the lid will actually close if I place them in neatly). Many were done during short camping trips and hold special memories. My favorite has to be the one of my Corgi, Butters.  

I painted the Nuthatch in a different technique that I’m beginning to play around with. No ink lines; I used both watercolor and gouache from my large gold Folio palette (a Travel & Sketch palette from Traveler’s Company USA) and just a touch here and there with a colored pencil.

When I recently put the muted gouache & watercolor combo palette together, I mixed several of the colors myself right in the pans with a toothpick. I want to try painting directly with these colors with very little pre-mixing of colors except where they naturally mix on the paper.

I also splurged on a new gold Demi palette from Art Toolkit’ Christmas collection and filled it with gouache as a tiny companion to the Folio palette that I can carry with me when we are away from home.