campsite tree

Eventually, I got around to sketching that massive live oak we were camping under last week, from the view of sitting under the RV’s awning during a gentle rain. Today I added a bit of colored pencil for texture detail. During our walks, we came across other trees even bigger and older than this one. 

And two trees of completely different types that somehow melded together as they grew up, now sharing a base though each growing totally different leaves. The following photos show the joined tree, then the leaves on the left followed by leaves & berries on the right.

Calmtober: costume

For the “costume” prompt, our granddaughter’s cat, Pumpkin, dressed as a human! A Maine Coon with very long easily-matted coat, he had to be shaved to get rid of painful mats. The sweatshirt kept him comfortable until a new coat grew in.

Pumpkin has been unwell for a long time; sadly, we recently learned that he has multiple cancers. The second photo shows him years ago with his buddy, Mocha, who died earlier this year. I took the photo of them watching Bradley, a Great Pyrenees mix, bonding with his new best friend, a 2 lb. kitten named Reeces. Reeces has grown considerably since then.

Calmtober: croissant

Not the best lighting for these photos — it’s been overcast or gently raining during our days here at Brazos Bend State Park. Which is normal for the wetland / bottom-land forest. We have enjoyed many peaceful walks and just relaxing under the trees.

My lines were a bit wonky here, and I added a color not in the set I’ve been using for Calmtober for my favorite Fiesta Ware.

Loving the handmade watercolors I see others using but wanting to stay with these magnetic Pocket Palettes, I put together a palette of my own from Letter Sparrow, one of the few makers of handmade watercolors offering them in metal pans. Two of the paints are from my regular stash.

Calmtober: thread

I drew these before leaving on our trip. It seems like there has always been various threads in my life, from the card-and-string toys I “sewed” as a toddler to sewing my own clothes as a teenager. Later, I sewed vintage-style teddy bears and spent years doing embroidery and cross-stitch. 

These days, the only sewing I enjoy is making my own sketchbooks. I don’t do that nearly often enough.

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.