Calmtober: woodpecker

A permanent resident of the East Texas Piney Woods, Red-headed Woodpeckers have been declining over the past 40-50 years. Possibly because deforestation is pushing them out to the Oaks & Prairies region.

Last year quite a few of these acrobatic birds were regular visitors to our bird feeder; this year we’ve only had a few. They are quite comical hanging nearly upside down as they eat.

A day early, but we are busy getting ready for a camping trip.

Calmtober: sketchbook

I went for the obvious here — I drew my current sketchbooks. The middle one, for Calmtober, is really black but I wanted it to show against the larger one.

Calmtober: squash

We don’t eat much squash other than zucchini or summer squash. But Bill brought these home for me to sketch just for this challenge . . . then he plans to cook them for us. Since retiring, he enjoys doing most of the cooking and I take care of the baking.

Calmtober: windowsill

This is our kitten, Luna, doing a bit more bird watching from a bedroom window. The cedar chest was my grandmother’s; I store knitting and sewing supplies in it.

The heavy flannel plaids quilt is a favorite but it seldom gets cold enough in our part of Texas to use it. So I keep it folded as a cushion to sit on.

Bill made the window woodwork out of rough cedar as well; there’s a real difference between the newer cedar and the richly aged cedar of the chest which is over 100 years old.

switching my bag’s palette

For away-from-home sketching, I carry a Traveler’s card-size notebook (also using it as my wallet) with regular Midori paper refills. Eventually I’ll bind my own but first I’m using what came with it. Watercolor doesn’t work so well on this lightweight paper, so I’ve been carrying a Demi palette filled with gouache.

But recently I found Lauren Fairweather on Instagram, showing how she filled her Pocket Palette with Gansai Tambi (click on her name to see her video). These Japanese paints are like a cross between watercolor and gouache. So I dug out my set and gave it a try. Here, I swatched out a muted gouache palette, a bright mixing gouache palette, and the new palette. I think I prefer the Gansai for being both muted and bright.

I put together the Gansai set, one color at a time, to get the muted colors I prefer. The plastic case they are in was found on eBay years ago, with square pans of Gansai in it. Those have been either given away or stored away for now. I had to lightly sand the outer edge of the rectangular pans in order for them to fit but I love this case for painting at home. The lid opens flat and has several divisions for mixing washes.

Calmtober: horse

This horse lives on a corner property just down the lane. His distinctive dark markings on legs, dark mane and tail, remind me of a Siamese cat.

We are nearly surrounded by properties with horses, though we just have two donkeys and a few goats.

Calmtober: campfire

 

Knowing the upcoming prompt list, when we were camping in September I planned on taking photos of the campfire. Unfortunately, a burn ban was in effect so I made this sketch up.

The unknown vine with red flowers was really growing near the lake. Mature blossoms had this stalk thing emerging from the center. Leaves tended to curl up.

The rocky fire pit is the style at campsites across the lake; our campsite had this ugly steel fire pit.

Calmtober: crescent moon

For years we have enjoyed listening to this Barred Owl but had never been able to see it . . . until early Sunday morning when Bill saw it flying between two of our oak trees.

I painted the crescent moon from an online photo taken in Texas a few years ago; every time I tried to see a crescent moon these past two months, it was cloudy.

Calmtober: mug

Or two mugs, in our case. Years ago, I found these hand-thrown pottery mugs at the Spice Merchant in Wichita, KS. Bill drinks his coffee every morning and I drink my hot tea. I don’t like my mug used for coffee, which smells lovely but leaves a bitter taste in a mug even after washing. These mugs match, yet are visually different.

After doing a light pencil layout, I ended up totally ignoring the pencil lines and drawing this loosely and quickly in ink. Then adding watercolor just as loosely.

Calmtober: wheelbarrow

When either of us go outside, the only reason has to be to play ball with our corgi, right?

Below, a photo of the double spread combining the previous prompt with today’s.