inconceivable !

Today I was told that what I thought was a sinus infection is Covid . . . plus the flu . . . plus strep throat. (“What, all three?”)

So I sketched about it in my sketchbook. 

I’m feeling very ridiculous at the moment. 🥴

(Drawn in continuous contour line using a ridiculously tiny turquoise fountain pen, then a bit of fluorescent watercolor added, in keeping with the silliness of it all.)

greeting cards

Closing my Etsy shop a couple of years ago left me with several small sketches just stored on a shelf. So I decided to turn some into greeting cards. (Has anyone else noticed the increasingly poor quality of commercial cards?)

It began with a sticker . . .

This week I am getting a new iPhone, so I ordered a new case. It came with some small stickers, one of which is a corgi camping; I had set up my green Demi Palette for using when camping in the forest and my corgi camps with us — so I added the sticker to the palette.

The forest color card folds out to show some of the mixes from these pigments. I also have an alternate color card should I wish to not include the mixing palette.

Then I remembered a small cactus sticker (I can’t remember where I got it) — and added it to my “Baby Cactus” Demi Palette. 

While I am personalizing palettes, I removed the paints from my Triad Pocket Palette, moving them to another pocket palette. Turquoise / Teal is my favorite color so I moved my most-used colors to this case. These are the colors of our part of Texas, influenced by Lisa Spangler’s Gulf Coast & Texas prairies choices from a few years ago. Originally I put it together as a Demi Palette; the larger size includes two new colors (Schmincke’s Shire Blue & Letter Sparrow’s Black Current) just for fun.

UPDATE: True to my normal habit, as soon as I posted this I made a change in the “Texas” palette! Potter’s Pink is not in Lisa Spangler’s original set that inspired this palette, but she includes an orange and a violet. Since Black Current is similar to Potter’s Pink, I removed the pink and added mini pans of orange and violet.

random sketches

Just a few random sketches of interesting things seen in the past 3 weeks . . .

The American Beautyberry plant was growing in the Sam Houston National Forest we camped in — great for keeping mosquitoes away! I saw the rooster perched in a wheelbarrow at Bill’s sister’s home in Kansas. And Bill brought me the small rose-colored mushroom because he knew I’d like to draw it.

sketching with friends

After spending a week in the Wichita area, we headed up to Excelsior Springs, Missouri to visit our dear friends, Kate and Joseph. Sharing tea and cookies with us were some of her whimsical “Little People”. After returning home, I sketched Duran hugging his dragonfly from a photo.

The four of us (and my corgi, Butters) later headed to Isley Park where Kate and I used to sketch springtime wildflowers. There, I drew a wonky sketch of the shelter’s fire pit — and Kate snuck a photo of me when I wasn’t paying attention!

a few quick sketches

While in Kansas we settled the RV at Bill’s sister’s home, inside a large fenced-in area. The heat and humidity were much lower than in Texas and Butters couldn’t get enough time playing fetch! 

From there we drove a rental car to visit family in El Dorado, Wichita, and Manhattan. I didn’t get much sketching done during the week — just the quick bits in this two-page spread.

More in my next post . . .

near Turner Falls, Oklahoma

Bill, our corgi Butters, and I headed towards Kansas on Friday with our first overnight stop near Turner Falls in Oklahoma. No, we did not actually go see the falls this trip but we want to return some day just to spend some time in this lovely area.

After arriving in Kansas on Saturday, we’ve been busy visiting family in Wichita, El Dorado, and Manhattan — I haven’t done any more sketching since the one above. But there’s always tomorrow . . .

taking a break from packing

We have been busy getting the RV ready and packing food, clothes, and other miscellaneous items to head up to Kansas soon.

Taking a break, I drew my tote bag. Normally I carry a very tiny bag of only the essentials, but not knowing what I might need as we travel between three cities in Kansas and one in Missouri, this one seems a better choice.

This was sketched with a Pilot Parallel pen filled with Noodler’s Lexington gray ink which is normally water resistant. Oddly, it smeared when I added watercolor.

happy birthday, Judah!

Several years ago I had an Etsy shop that is now closed, leaving a few unsold sketches on the shelf. One of our grandsons has a birthday next week and he happens to loves cats. So I tore down the edges and turned this sketch into his birthday card.

Seven years ago we stayed in a bed-and-breakfast where this Turkish Van cat lived. This urn sat on a picnic table and really was his outdoor water dish. A sketch just waiting to happen!

camping, part 2

Stormy weather caught up with us on Tuesday afternoon, so we retreated inside the RV, where I sketched this. Butters, who does not like thunder, stayed under the table as I sat there sketching.

Next, I sketched the key fob — but I did not have turquoise or buff titanium in my palette. I did add 4 convenience colors to this limited palette; just not the ones needed for the camper charm. So I did some color mixing studies.

Trees sometimes take on very interesting forms during their lifespans. These two sketches captured two of them near our camp site.