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.

Calmtober: moss

Our home was once a small pole barn. Yet even when it was a barn, there was a small cement porch in front. On either side of the porch were these two enormous rocks plus several lantana plants. After reconstructing the barn into a house and woodshop, we planted prickly pear cactus instead of the lantana, which had been trampled by the workers. The most beautiful green moss grows on portions of the big rocks.

The pencil ghosting is part of the next sketch prompt. These two sketches each share a bit of its neighboring sketch’s page in this accordion sketchbook.

Calmtober: drizzle

This was a challenging challenge! First, trying to capture photos of some of our late-migration hummingbirds. Then trying to indicate a light drizzle falling as they feed.

just playing

Today I ate the last of these yummy vine-ripened little tomatoes . . . after a quick ink & wash sketch using my green Kaweco Liliput (with green ink!) and a Demi palette of Da Vinci watercolors.

Calmtober: oak

In just over three weeks, we will be camping underneath this Live Oak at Brazos Bend State Park — one of many gorgeous old oaks in the park. And yes, there are alligators among the abundant wildlife, though not usually near the campsites.

Calmtober: blackbird

Great Tailed Grackles gather in large numbers in our grocery store parking lot, strutting and hopping about like they own the place and are welcoming our visit.

I’m late getting today’s Calmtober sketch finished. We were on the road, returning from a short camping trip. This is an accordion-fold sketchbook, 1st and 2nd pages.

morning view, Lake Somerville

This is the view I woke up to yesterday morning, looking through a tiny window next to the bed in our RV. We are on a short camping trip, checking out the RV after it sat unused all summer. Texas summers are just too hot and humid to enjoy camping. Now that we know everything is running smoothly (and we remember those items we forgot that we needed to pack), we will be having longer adventures in the coming months.

This sketch is in my Traveler’s Notebook, passport size. The Demi palette I keep in the pocket holds watercolors from Marc Taro Holmes’ “Direct Watercolor” palette from Art Toolkit, 2018.

first & last pages, Calmtober

This week we are camping at a nearby lake, but I am also getting ready for Calmtober which begins on Thursday. 

I am using an A6 Hahnemuhle ZigZag book, both sides. This first page shows the palette I chose. Each leave shape is a variety of oak, several which grow on our property. We don’t see much color change in autumn in our part of Texas; some oaks even hold on to their leaves until spring.

For the last page, I copied Kriksis’ prompt list  to refer to, leaving space at the bottom in case I wish to add a note later.

When I decided to join this art challenge, I thought maybe I would try it in a new style. Maybe more like a children’s book illustration that tells a story? And maybe try using just watercolor & gouache? But what I am most comfortable with is ink & wash so I’m going to stick with that. Also, the subject matter in my regular sketchbook journals usually reflect bits of my everyday life, so this Calmtober sketchbook will as well.

For the curious, my palette was inspired by Deep Deep Light’s Autumn Forever set, put together by Kriksis. From the upper left, they are:

* my mix of quin. rose, yellow ochre, & transp. red oxide

*urban grey (Schmincke)

* zoisite

* my mix of burnt umber & raw umber

* lunar earth

* blue apatite

* my mix of shire grey (Schmincke) & lunar black

* raw umber violet

* yellow ochre (Winsor & Newton)

* buff titanium 

Unless stated, all watercolors are from Daniel Smith.

playing in ink

Here I was just drawing random things, using a brass Kaweco Sport fountain pen with a De Atramentis Document black cartridge, a gray brush pen, and a touch of watercolor. The old building (a stagecoach relay station from the 1800s) is built of a dark local stone, but I wish I had kept to lighter washes. I wrote on the page that it is located between Somerville and Caldwell, Texas, but I was remembering wrong — it’s actually between Caldwell and Milano.