a mini hike

Yesterday as I waited during Bill’s appointment with the hygienist, I painted a quick sketch in my old mini (2”) sketchbook using gouache thinly as watercolor. I used an old photo saved on my phone but made a bit up as well. Things seemed to go fine — until I added the people. My brush tip was too large, the paint too dark, proportions all wrong . . .

for the palette obsessed . . .

. . . these are a few other muted palettes I have put together. The top one is a neutral set I put together years ago. The upper two swatch cards are watercolor; the lower one, gouache.

In the neutral set from lower left: black current (Letter Sparrow), burnt umber, raw umber, perylene green, lunar blue, indigo, moonglow, volcano brown (Schmincke), sepia, titanium white gouache, buff titanium, grey of grey (Holbein), gray titanium, lunar black, and Jane’s grey. All Daniel Smith unless otherwise noted.

Click to see the paint names on the other cards.

tweaked again!

And of course, I have tweaked my new combo palette! I missed the lovely Ash Blue gouache. And living in this sunny climate, a brighter yellow might be needed — Titanium Gold Ochre is still muted, sort of like Naples Yellow. I removed the Sepia watercolor, as I can achieve its granulating brown by mixing “Random Grey” watercolor with Smoked Bamboo gouache. 

I also moved all the “browns” to one side of the mixing pan and all of the “greys” to the other — though Zoisite Genuine watercolor is more of a dark green.

Random Grey was my attempt at copying Schmincke’s one-time issue of a random grey that was a mixture of unknown pigments that will not be repeated. I stirred together Ultramarine Blue, Transparent Red Oxide, and Burnt Umber for its brownish grey tone. A spot of a cool red might have improved it.

The “Pale Green” should be a bit greener in color. I made it by stirring a bit of Perylene Black (which is a dark cool green) into Titanium White. My mixture of “Jane’s Grey” (or Payne’s Grey) could use a bit more Ultramarine to it.

By the way, the R20 short flat travel brush from Rosemary & Co has become one of my favorite brushes. My other favorites are the R13 #8 sable blend round, the R19 #12 pointed round, and a funny little flat brush from Herend.

tiny sketch challenge, done!

Leslie Stroz, an artist in the UK that I follow, began a “100 Tiny Treasures” art challenge earlier this year to create 100 tiny paintings during 2025. I decided to do 50 instead — less pressure and that’s all that would fit in my tin box! Today I did my 50th painting, the Nuthatch in the above group, from a photo prompt Leslie posted on her Patreon site.

The second photo shows the whole pile of my tiny sketches, and the third photo shows them inside my favorite plaid tin (yes, the lid will actually close if I place them in neatly). Many were done during short camping trips and hold special memories. My favorite has to be the one of my Corgi, Butters.  

I painted the Nuthatch in a different technique that I’m beginning to play around with. No ink lines; I used both watercolor and gouache from my large gold Folio palette (a Travel & Sketch palette from Traveler’s Company USA) and just a touch here and there with a colored pencil.

When I recently put the muted gouache & watercolor combo palette together, I mixed several of the colors myself right in the pans with a toothpick. I want to try painting directly with these colors with very little pre-mixing of colors except where they naturally mix on the paper.

I also splurged on a new gold Demi palette from Art Toolkit’ Christmas collection and filled it with gouache as a tiny companion to the Folio palette that I can carry with me when we are away from home.

new trees

We were able to have two new trees planted last week, another oak tree in the back yard and a sycamore in the front pasture. From photos I took of the leaves, I tried out my new way of working: loose watercolor in my new muted palette followed by a touch of colored pencil. No ink! (except for the words). This rough textured paper probably isn’t the best choice for the pencils.

Recently I purchased some stackable ceramic trays for mixing paint when I’m at home — mainly because they have a lid that covers all when stacked. I can walk away from mixes without the kitties nosing in the paint. I also found a collapsable water cup with a wavy edge that holds my paint brushes.

tweaking palettes, charting pencils

This week I’ve been changing out some palettes, both watercolor & gouache, and digging out my colored pencils. It began with placing every pan of gouache I own into a Folio palette, and making a color chart of them. Many are pans that will not be replaced when they are used up — eventually making room for adding a large mixing pan to the folio palette.

I want to do more mixed media sketching which called for gathering my colored pencils, most of which are watercolor pencils. I have never made a color chart of them before.

I’ve always loved muted, earthy colors most. Yet usually I put palettes together that included classic bright primaries — but why? If muted colors are my favorites, why not stick to them? So the two pocket palettes are both muted colors, one watercolor and one gouache. Maybe I should make a color chart of my small set of Neocolor II crayons as well? 

recent tiny sketches

These tiny sketches were done this past week — I drew the corner of the building, Rice University’s BioScience Research Collaborative, just today after we drove past it on our way to the Med Center (for Bill this time, not me). I snapped a quick photo because I liked the angles and curves. The iced tea and salsa are from yesterday’s late lunch while waiting to pick up our corgi from the groomer’s.

I have only four more to do to reach my goal of 50 tiny sketches by December.

final ink sketch

One last October ink sketch, loosely following an example from the library book “Pen & Ink Techniques” by Frank Lohan — I drew the tree directly in ink, letting the pen move a bit intuitively across the page. But you can still see faint pencil lines under the text that I didn’t bother to erase.

today’s quick sketch . . .

. . . sketched without any pre-planning. Today I was busy baking a birthday cake for Bill (his birthday is tomorrow), and gave no thought to doing a daily ink sketch. Until remembering this evening that I still have 2 more days of this self-imposed challenge.

So I drew the first thing I saw.

My mother always made red velvet cake with an old-fashioned boiled milk frosting, also known as ermine frosting, so that’s how I used to do it. But Bill grew up with a cream cheese frosting, and now our daughter says that’s the correct topping for red velvet. So I did it their way.

almost done . . .

My month of simple daily ink-only sketches is almost over, and I am ready to play with color again! Today, I was entering a deposit in my checkbook, took a look at the pen in my hand, and used it to draw my hand on the spur of the moment.