waiting . . .

Being married to Bill means we are usually the first to arrive. Time to sketch before others arrive.

This is what I normally carry to church --- the iPod Touch holds several Bible versions and I carry the church's money bag to collect offerings to take to the bank. (I'm the treasurer).

This current heat wave is so oppressive, there just isn't any energy to go out looking for something more interesting to sketch. So I sketch whatever is nearby.

sketching at doctors' appointments

Nothing conclusive was found when I saw an ear doctor about the vertigo . . . but I had several sketching opportunities while waiting in various rooms.

Today, I did some more medical office sketching -- this time while my mom saw her eye doctor. At first I decided to not try sketching her doctor, knowing how he is constantly moving. Then he took a phone call so I did a quick gesture sketch.

He must have eyes in the back of his head because as soon as he hung up and stood up, he turned around and asked to see my sketch.

new tea mug . . . free!

I get email sales notices from World Market -- sometimes a bit annoying, but I just delete them. But in the month of a customer's birthday, they send a $10 coupon for anything in the store. I used part of mine on this new ceramic tea mug with it's own infuser and lid. Now if I could find a decent brand of tea leaves . . .

playing with "illumination"

I have never learned to do calligraphy but have always loved illuminated manuscript art, such is found in the Book of Kells and early church books. So I wrote out the lyrics to my favorite hymn and played around with it last night.

I didn't realize until it was finished that the quinacridone gold I chose exactly matches the bookmark ribbon I included in this hand-bound sketchbook.

the mail's arrived . . .

Always fun to get art supplies in the mail, even when it's just replacing paints I'm low on. I try to take advantage of the free or reduced shipping days from Cheap Joe's and Daniel Smith. But why do both companies use such over-sized boxes for such small items? They almost get lost in the packing!

I didn't order the watercolor stick --- Cheap Joe's often sends free samples.

sketching from photos

The past 2 weeks have been full of distractions, causing me to neglect my sketchbook for the most part. Kids and grandkids visiting from Texas, a doctor's appointment, finishing up on knitting an afghan for our youngest son, a death in our son-in-law's family with an unplanned visit from our daughter . . . .

I have been sketching from some photos taken on our recent trip to Tanganyika Wildlife Park over the 2 weeks, adding a bit of color when I had the chance. But I'm finally finished and can move on to something new.

Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Our granddaughter, Mikala, has been visiting our small town, shared between her other grandparents and us. During her long stay, our son Jason and his family came for a long weekend visit, bringing 3 more of our 5 grandchildren: Jayna, Josiah, and Judah.

On Monday we took all the children to Goddard, KS to visit Tanganyika, a small privately owned wildlife park. Being a very hot morning, I did not take time to sketch on site; even the animals sought out the few shady spots. I did take a few photos though --- Sketching from the photos in my journal helps me keep the happy memories now that our kids have all returned home. (We raised 4 children here in Kansas; now all 4 live in various places in Texas)

This prairie meadow is just outside of the park -- I loved the streak of yellow wildflowers in the distance, though I didn't quite capture them here. The girls and I thought the tokens were pretty so I even took a photo of one -- these are used to feed many of the animals.

page 1, new journal

As usual, I sketched a palette on the first page . . . and a travel squirrel mop brush I've been using lately.

Usually I mix ultramarine and burnt umber or burnt sienna for black; this time, I tried a dark red and dark green, adding just a wee bit of ultramarine. Worked nicely.

new sketchbooks

Well they are together at least . . . . I made so many mistakes while adding covers to the Coptic-bound book blocks!

I had originally planned on different colors of book-cloth for contrast spines. But I'm still dealing with some vertigo/dizziness, so I kept it as simple as possible. I may add some small bit of embellishment to the front of each as I use them --- that helps to easily tell the front from the back. I may shorten those ribbon bookmarks a bit as well.

The first two covers were glued on before I remembered the end papers . . . they seem to work fine with just the first and last pages of the book block used as end papers. Another one has a major folded ripple in one end paper . . . pure carelessness. One book's spine board was too wide. Oh, well . . . .

Most of my previous sketchbooks are the size reached when simply folding/tearing down from the original full-size paper -- ending with 5.5 x 7.5" book blocks. These are a bit bigger this time, about 7 x 9". Three are Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold-press watercolor paper from Cheap Joe's, one is Fabriano Artistico 140 # hot-press, and the last one is a combination of Fabriano Artistico 90 lb. soft-press and Mi Tientes toned papers. Oh . . . and making my own bookcloth worked great! Cotton fabric and white tissue paper put together with Heat & Bond iron-on adhesive.

souvenirs from Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Our son Jason and his family came to visit us over the weekend. On Monday we picked up our other granddaughter, Mikala, from her other grandma's and took the kids to Tanganyika Wildlife Park west of Wichita. The only one missing of the 5 cousins was Quentin, who is in Austin.

Too hot to stop and sketch in the intense sunlight and heat, but we walked the entire park --- feeding, petting, and admiring animals here and there and even a camel ride for Mikala, Jayna, and Josiah. On the drive home, I tried to sketch the children's souvenirs in pencil . . . to much laughter from the girls as a very bumpy ride made them very scribbly. But I redrew them in ink later at home and added a splash of color.

I didn't have a chance to sketch Josiah's choice, a long rubber snake, but he took time to add some pencil sketches of his own. This is the second snake he has picked out this summer --- a budding herpetologist with a daddy who is very afraid of snakes!

This finishes up the small Moleskine I sometimes carried in my bag since January. So I am officially without a current sketchbook until I glue the covers together on the new sketchbooks.