17 March 2024

a touch of spring

These tiny yellow-to-coral wildflowers are popping up all over our yard and front pasture. The wee blossoms are only 1/2 to 3/4” diameter. I don’t know what they are called but they make me smile.

16 March 2024

a new toy

When I first began to use fountain pens for sketching, Lamy Safaris were my go-to choice — and I still love their dependability, as well as being able to match my ink color to the pen. (They still don’t have a decent brown for brown ink though!)

But in recent years, my favorite pens have been Kaweco Liliput fountain pens! Even though they are not flexible-nib pens, the more they are used the more flexible the nib becomes.

Several months ago I found this Kaweco Supra on JetPens.com and immediately placed it on my wish list. The nib is larger and with the barrel’s extension piece it can hold a regular international cartridge or an ink converter. (If the extension piece is removed, it is more the length of a Liliput which can only use international short cartridges.) To celebrate beating cancer, I decided to gift myself with the new pen with a larger M nib, especially for writing letters or drawing with a bolder line. German fountain pen nibs as a rule run larger than Japanese nibs.

For some reason, my white gel pen refused to write on the black ink label of the De Atramentis ink bottle in the sketch. Curious!๐Ÿคจ 

11 March 2024

a sketching pause while cleaning


Yesterday I cleaned up my art space in the back room. Or rather, I cleaned up this portion of the space: an oak taboret on wheels that Bill built for me years ago that sits next to my old desk. So of course I had to draw it in my journal. ๐Ÿ˜‚

Yes, that is a ceramic pet dish acting as a water container! With the addition of my corgi, we needed a larger water dish for pets so the old one joined my art supplies. I just need to remember to empty it so the cats don’t drink dirty paint water!

Several old wooden boxes hold various supplies — the oldest one on an underneath shelf is filled with ink bottles and cartridges. It came from my grandfather’s printing shop and once held metal typeset letters.

This back room in our wee barn-house is a combination studio, library, office, laundry room, and cats’ room (where they can eat without a corgi interfering with them!). I have lots more cleaning to do, especially the wall of built-in bookshelves.



After posting this, I went back to the Dorothy L. Sayers novel I am currently reading. This conversation between Lord Peter Wimsey and his friend Charles Parker of Scotland Yard caught my eye. It’s been years since 9th grade Latin class — I had to look that bit up!

In the context of Wimsey’s character, it made me laugh so I jotted it down.





By the way, that desk of mine has some family history as well. It was once covered with red paint and stood in my grandfather’s barber shop with a great antique cash register on top of it. I had it stripped back to wood and have used it ever since as a desk . . . or a table to hold my sewing machine.

08 March 2024

relaxing with color

Zero inspiration, zero motivation at the moment . . . (or am I just feeling lazy?). So I made a color chart of my favorite watercolors. A very relaxing thing to do.

I was also testing masking tape and masking fluid in this new sketchbook. The lines between the color swatches are made with a very skinny masking tape (I should’ve taped over the center binding threads — they drank up the paint!). The highlights on water-brush and paint palette are where I tried out a Molotow masking liquid marker. Both seem to work well on this paper. The masking fluid would not come up when rubbed with my finger but a white eraser worked fine.

03 March 2024

a bit of shopping

After previously ordering 2 fine brush tip pens, I found that they were not waterproof (I gave them to 2 grandsons). I was more careful in placing a second Jet Pens order, this time choosing a Kuretake Ai ultra fine brush pen and a set of Akoshiya Sai thin line brush pens. I tested them on this journal page — all are very tiny brushes and all waterproof!

The Kuretake is the smallest brush and the deepest black but the cap does not post, making it uncomfortably short to hold. The longer Akoshiya pens are much easier to hold and the subtle colors are beautiful!

And that Hahnemuhle zig zag sketchbook? I just added it to get free shipping. That is how I usually pick up random sketchbooks to stock my shelves. ๐Ÿ˜„

01 March 2024

baby apple tree

Last year about this time, the baby apple tree in the pasture in front of our barn-house was loaded with blossoms, followed by a bumper-crop of apples. But just before time to pick them, our local raccoon family stole all of the apples!

It’s beginning to look like another good year for apples. I wonder if we’ll actually be able to eat some of them this year?

27 February 2024

first violet of 2024

Early this morning Butters and I were exploring when I spotted this tiny violet. So I sketched it in my tiny sketchbook.

I’m keeping the 2” sketchbook, a tiny Pigma Micron pen, paper towel, small waterbrush, and my CMYK Demi Palette in a large cotton bag from Art Toolkit.

In addition to cyan, magenta, yellow, and black from Greenleaf & Blueberry, I added green apatite, ultramarine blue, a raw sienna, and transparent red oxide.



26 February 2024

my eye candy

Instead of beginning my new journal with a sketch of one of my Pocket Palettes like I normally do, I just chose my top 18 colors. Which, looking at it this morning, makes me hungry for jelly beans! Gotta love candy colors! ๐Ÿ˜‚ 

From the top, the colors are: 

Potters pink (WN), quinacridone rose, quinacridone coral, nickel azo yellow, azo yellow, green apatite, jadeite, cobalt turquoise light (WN), cobalt turquoise, cerulean blue chromium, ultramarine blue (WN), indanthrone blue, monte amiata natural sienna, transparent red oxide, quinacridone burnt scarlet, burnt umber, buff titanium, and lunar black.

All from Daniel Smith except the 3 indicated from Winsor & Newton.


24 February 2024

ending and beginning

This is the last of my Khadi Papers Watercolour Sketchbook which I have been using since last April; the final page is partially glued to the end paper, making the last page a bit shorter. I used the back of the inside cover to test inks, try out watercolors, jot down doctor visits, etc.

I always look forward to beginning a new journal, but which one? The sketch is of a few ready-made sketchbooks waiting on my shelf. I think I’ll try the gray Tumuarta sketchbook — the paper is 140 lb. cold press which I miss working on, though the cover seems to be poorly made. I’ll soon find out . . .

20 February 2024

some local highland cows


We recently drove a back road near home where Bill and I both tried snapping some photos of this highland cow herd. I especially like the one of the baby Bill took. It was a cooler day, much better suited to their thick, hairy coats.

And just to prove that I will sketch just about anything in my view: an abdominal drain that’s currently attached to me, an aftermath of the 11-hour surgery of 2 weeks ago. I am hoping to get it removed this week. Too gross to record in my sketchbook? Maybe. But an interesting memory, just the same.





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