breakfast this morning

We met our friend Eugene for breakfast early this morning (three others showed up to join us later), and I almost finished this sketch before my own breakfast showed up . . . . But the final bits of color were added later at home.

I like my “lunar” limited palette so much (mentioned here) that I decided to put together a Pocket Palette of the same. Except for the serpentine genuine in the larger set — I had an old unused pan of jadeite genuine so I threw that in instead. Add a touch of quinacridone gold and I still get warmer greens. Fun colors to play with!

Not sure I really need the buff titanium. Perhaps I’ll exchange it for raw umber?

a wee wooden shoe

This is an unexpected gift I received when I purchased a plaid purse recently on Etsy. The seller who made the purse lives in the Netherlands —- a few days after carrying the new bag, I found this tiny key chain inside! So I decided to sketch it . . .

lunar watercolors

Just for fun, I decided to put together a limited palette using Daniel Smith’s lunar watercolors. The unexpected granulation patterns are fun! I already owned the blue, black, and violet, and had recently bought the gorgeous red rock to go with them. There’s also a lunar earth, which I had a sample color dot of, but I prefer the transparent red oxide that I already have a tube of.

All I really needed to add was some kind of yellow; I decided to use one of my pans of the original quinacridone gold (no longer available). After it’s gone, I will probably use monte amiata natural sienna in its place.

Because there was still space in the paint box, I added a green and buff titanium. Then put 3 sable travel brushes in the center space. Now, what shall I sketch with this set?

woodshops and dust collectors

Monday afternoon we headed towards Pflugerville to attend a Boy Scout Christmas event with grandson Quen. Heading out too early, we stopped first in Elgin where we saw an antique shop that we’d somehow missed up till now. Tons of treasures! We’ll have to come back when we have more time to look. Bill did find this old scraper — says he’s wanted one “forever”! — so we bought it.

Then we made a stop in Manor where our son Matt is hard at work getting a new woodworking company set up with contract jobs. Bill loved looking at all the equipment they are setting up to do the work. The shiny new dust collector system shown in the above sketch is not nearly as picturesque as the rickety old dust collector where he used to work in Georgetown, shown below.

The Gift

This Saturday and Sunday was the monthly “Sketch With Me” virtual sketch event, and as has been true of the last two events, it fell at a time when we were unusually busy or preoccupied. Saturday was a day full of cleaning, laundry (it seems to multiply when we’re at College Station so much), making 2 batches of fudge and one batch of cookies, and a visit from friends who wanted to show us their new puppy, Belle. Not much time to sketch.

Then today, we took a trip to Needville where our granddaughter Jayna was performing in a Christmas band concert. Hard to draw accurately on the rough Texas farm roads.

The “theme” this month is “The Gift” . . . . When I was finally able to do a bit of sketching, my subject seemed rather obvious. The very best gift of all. Or at least a representation of that Gift.

The rusty metal is a nativity we just bought, in keeping with our recent “rustic country” decor. It sits on a ledge dividing the kitchen from the living room, fitting right in with the galvanized milk strainer and chicken feeder light fixtures Bill has made for the kitchen. The tiny olive wood piece is a tree ornament. We never got around to putting a tree up this year but the ornament is on the shelf.

On the second page are a couple of lawn displays we saw today in Somerville, Texas, and a Christmas card designed by a young patient at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. They have pediatric patients create paintings to be turned into cards and calendars every year as a fund raiser for the pediatric patient programs.

some recent shopping

I have been amazed at how neither of my two Scottish Fold Straights cats are finicky in the least bit. They gladly eat whatever brand, type or flavor food I set before them . . . and try to help themselves to some things that are definitely NOT given to them!

But I just found one thing they are decidedly picky about: I recently switched to this brand of litter, filling one of the three litter pans with it. (I have been following the advice to have one litter box per cat, plus one, placed throughout the house.)  Now they refuse to use any other litter!

Other recent shopping: I sold some things which left a balance in my PayPal account. So I decided to use some of it to purchased this handsewn plaid bag found on Etsy. Then I decided to try sketching it — plaid is not easy to sketch!

There is a brand label (Imola) on one side of the bag. I could pick the stitches to remove it, but for now I covered it with a Celtic cross pendant I was given for Christmas.

my solution to the previous post

 Okay, I moved the paints from my Daniel Smith half pan set (see previous post) into this flat-profile mint tin. The lid lays perfectly flat when open and has a raised lid on all four sides to keep  mixed washes contained.

The inner lid is presently a mirror; I can either line it with white contact paper or spray paint it white — but for now, it works fine.

Each half pan is attached with a small bit of Blue Tac, shown on the buff titanium pan. I also write the paint name on each pan with a permanent marker; the name can later be washed off if necessary using a bit of Soft Scrub.

I had to switch the center Cerulean Blue standard sized half pan to an old Cotman half pan (which is slightly smaller) to fit.

Now I can take these paints “on the road”!

Daniel Smith half-pan set

I love painting with Daniel Smith watercolors, so I was eager to try out their new half-pan watercolor set. Unfortunately, the design of the plastic palette is unusable for on-the-go sketching unless you carry an additional mixing surface.

I was expecting something similar to Cotman’s watercolor sketchers pocket set, shown here, but holding more colors. In the Cotman set you can mix juicy washes in the lid and they stay put until you apply them to paper. But the Daniel Smith palette does not open flat — the lid stays slightly angled, as shown in the next photo. To make matters worse, there is no barrier where the lid meets the paint section — paint runs down the slope, through a gap and out onto your hand below.

When I first took the set out of its box, I found that the lid is very hard to open; you have to pry the corners apart with a bit of effort. Not particularly a bad thing, just a bit annoying.

I chose the earth colors set since it had pigments I had not tried previously — the pans are unmarked and there is no color map included so I had a hard time telling Venetian Red from Burnt Sienna Light. I imagine it would be even worse for someone buying the set of multiple blues or the large set of 15 colors if they weren’t already familiar with the pigments.

Standard half pans fit easily, so I went ahead and added paints that I already had (listed on the left side of my sketchbook page), but this set will remain at home instead of being the travel set I had hoped for. Who wants to carry an additional mixing surface with them when they are already juggling pen, brush, sketchbook, water and palette?

I just found that Roz Stendahl made a great video review of this set, seen here.

a bit of cotton

As we drive to College Station, we pass lots of Texas A & M’s test fields. This year they were full of a huge variety of cotton plants — some were harvested quite awhile ago and some just last week. Heavy rains just about ruined the later producing crops, and some crops have just been left in the fields to rot. We saw the big green harvester machines working the early crops — it was cool to see cotton “picked” and eventually coming out as an oversized round bale!

Benjamin

This is Benjamin, the goat our granddaughter Mikala is raising for F.F.A at school. She might have a tough time letting go of him, as the goats are later auctioned off for meat. Someday Mikala hopes to be an exotic animal vet.

leftover samples

So what do y’all do with watercolor samples that you’ve decided not to use? I thought I’d give them to grandchildren to paint with, but none of them are really into painting anymore. When I used to meet up with other sketchers at sketch crawls in the Kansas City area, we used to trade art supplies we no longer used — but I’ve never found anyone local to sketch with.

So I guess I’ll just sketch these samples in my sketchbook and stick them back in my stash. Or throw them away?

UPDATE: after gathering more unused art supplies, my daughter is mailing them to her high school friend Charity, who now teaches art at a Kansas college — she keeps a “freebie” box for students.

remembering President Bush

Bill had cardio rehab yesterday in College Station and there were already signs of preparation for Thursday’s events, when President George H. W. Bush will be buried next to his wife Barbara at the Bush Library. After therapy, we headed towards home, driving along Wellborn — a freight train was going by on the track running along the side of the road but it was also pulling a passenger car, heading towards Houston to be added to the train that will transport President Bush from Houston on Thursday. We wondered if this car was for pall bearers or the press. The front engine of the train had number “41” painted on it.

Stopping at H.E.B. for a few groceries, we saw two jets flying overhead, one jet breaking away — practicing the “missing man formation”. We continued to hear them roaring overhead from inside the store as they went through the same pattern over and over.

Heading home, we saw men already setting up fences to hold back expected crowds when the road will close tomorrow. Bill decided to reschedule tomorrow’s therapy appointment.

Here in Texas, President Bush wasn’t just a political figure; he was a beloved member of the family. I once went to an Astro’s game he and Barbara attended, just part of the “regular crowd”. About 17 years ago, I went with Bill’s mother to hear Barbara Bush speak at the junior college in our small town in Kansas — because Mom was on oxygen (considered handicapped), we sat right in front next to Barbara. She was an engaging, intelligent speaker but I came away mostly knowing of the special love she and George shared. Now they are together again.

studio palette clean-up

Sinus headaches have kept me from wanting to sketch much, but cleaning up my art space and palettes seems to relax me. Maybe because it doesn’t require much thought? I keep a larger Schmincke metal palette in my studio space, with a lot more paints than I normally use for quick sketching. There were several colors that I no longer used . . . or tried and never really liked. So I cleared them out and made this color chart of the watercolor paints I kept, along with pigment information. These are the colors I most love to use. Many are convenience blends, easy to get to if I don’t want to take time to mix. One “staple color” no longer in this palette is quinacridone gold. I loved the original from Daniel Smith but just don’t like its new substitute blend.

(Unless otherwise noted, I use Daniel Smith watercolors. A.J. = American Journey, Holb. = Holbein, and W + N = Winsor & Newton)

While I was at it, I did this smaller color chart just for fun. Basically it’s a “warm” and “cool” of the primaries plus a selection of greens and neutrals. Plus extra blues because there is such a broad range of blues to choose from!

a bit of prickly pear

At one of the properties our daughter and son-in-law looked at, we found some prickly pear cactus growing. It grows wild in the countryside around here (full of extremely sharp needles!), but this one was a cultivated kind (no needles). Only 2 fruits left . . .

sheepish neighbors

While looking at several country properties with our daughter and son-in-law, I tend to wander around snapping photos to sketch later. These sheep lived next door to one of the places they decided was not right for them. They watched every move I made but didn’t seem too concerned.

early pages

As I was sorting through the clutter on my bookshelf in the loft, I came upon these three pages from 2006 — my early attempt at keeping an artist journal. I first discovered watercolor in 2005 and began drawing again after ignoring it for over 30 years. These were probably copied from other sources; I had filled an old unused daily planner with cheap watercolor paper.

Sketch With Me — gratitude

The past two days have been sketching days for the Facebook group, Sketch With Me, and this month’s theme is gratitude. While I had planned on sketching on Saturday, we ended up looking at a country property that our daughter and son-in-law considered purchasing. They are wishing to move away from Houston’s suburbs to a small acreage in the country . . . and they are specifically looking for a place with an in-law house, hoping that we will join them.

We both dearly love our log cabin here, north of Brenham, as well as our church family and this area. We also love the many improvements we have made here in the past 5 years, including a woodshop, a new carport, a remodeled bathroom in more of a rustic style, and real stone tile floors. Getting rid of the 2 previous ugly carports and the small building that blocked the cabin’s view made it much more attractive as well.

I am grateful for the time we have been able to live in this place and for all the Lord has worked out in our lives since coming here, including bringing Bill safely through the years of chronic pain and an unexpected second bypass surgery.

But we do not trust the current situation with our community water well. Those in charge of its upkeep have refused to listen to sound reasoning . . . or the fact that the state does in fact have the right to demand that wells be brought up to state code or they can be forced to be shut down. There are 30 some homes depending on the well system and we have a lack of confidence in the board members doing the right thing. Bill tried serving on the board for a time but they would not listen to his vast knowledge and experience in these matters.

Yesterday, instead of regular sketching, I scribbled the above in my sketchbook as we checked out the in-law cottage on the 7 1/4 acre property we were looking at. After much thought and discussion, all four of us agreed that the acreage is a bit more than we need and the larger ranch house is not special enough to move our kids to buy this early in their search. But we had a great day together anyway, which is another thing I’m grateful for!

one wee mushroom

After meeting our daughter for lunch at our favorite BBQ place in Chapell Hill, I noticed this tiny mushroom growing in the railing in front. So I took a quick photo of it to sketch later . . .

leaves for remembrance

We had a fun time with our daughter and son-in-law yesterday in spite of damp, drippy weather. They have been considering a move to the country recently and we have been going along to look at properties with them. Between Kristen being a highly experienced mechanical engineer and Bill having been a master plumber, heating & air guy, propane tech, and a skilled woodworker with additional knowledge of electrical wiring systems, they can pretty much learn quite a lot about a property’s condition!

They have been looking at properties that include an in-law house, hoping that we will join them. At first we made jokes and just laughed about the idea. But they are serious. Our oldest son and his wife already live in a similar arrangement with her parents in an in-law suite attached to their home. Given the number of properties we’ve seen that include such a house, it appears to be a common thing in this part of the country.

Given our lack of confidence in the HOA in charge of upkeep on our common well, which is not in compliance with state mandates governing community wells, we are giving the whole idea some serious thought. I love our little log cabin and the improvements we have made here, and I would miss it. We would also miss being so close to our friends and church family.

Meanwhile, all 4 of us liked the property we looked at yesterday very much — if only they can negotiate the price down to a reasonable level. The main house needs lots of repairs and updates, having been built in the 1960s. We had fun talking over the details and imagining changes. Kris and I even started talking about raising dairy goats and learning to make cheese together! As we were leaving, I picked up these leaves to sketch, to remember a great day, regardless of the outcome.

a cup of cocoa, please!

I love quickly mixing a cup of hot cocoa but the packaged instant cocoas sold in stores are way too sweet! They also have added ingredients I’d rather not consume. So I came up with my own instant mix using Sweet Leaf stevia. A bit more care is needed stirring to make sure it dissolves, depending on what brand of powdered milk and cocoa is used. Some brands won’t hardly dissolve at all.

My recipe:
2 cups nonfat dry milk (I don’t necessarily want nonfat but it’s all I can find)
1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1 1/2 Tablespoons Sweet Leaf stevia sweetener (or 3/4 cup sugar)
dash of salt

Mix very well and store tightly covered. Slowly stir boiling water into 1/4 cup mix; top with real whipped cream.

This gouache sketch is the final page spread in this sketchbook journal, so back to my larger journal. And perhaps I’ll add another small one to my bag.

gouache travel palette

This sketch shows the pigment selections for my travel-sized gouache palette, shown in the previous post’s photograph. Gouache from tubes was squeezed directly into the 12 compartments along the sides, a combination of M. Graham and Schmincke brands.

Whenever the quin. violet and van dyke brown are used up, they will not be replaced. I will probably get rid of either the gamboge or titanium gold ochre also.  I don’t think I really need both of them — I haven’t decided which of the two to keep. And now that I look at them, do I really need both cerulean blue and helio turquoise?

I placed a flat magnetic strip down the empty center space to hold 4 metal pans from extra Pocket Palette pans, and a regular half-pan of titanium white. I don’t believe that this Pocket Painter empty palette is available anymore; I bought a couple of them from Wet Paint Art Supply years ago.

a bit of ice from Cincinnati

Our youngest son, Jeff, now lives in Cincinnati and he often sends me photos he takes around the area. This week, he sent multiple shots showing the ice he woke up to and challenged me to sketch them. An entire tree and a very full shrub looked a bit too challenging to me but these branches seemed fun to try. I greatly simplified the sketch on toned paper (Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook in beige toned paper) and then added a bit of gouache.

Jeff also sent a video of snow flurries, excited to now be living where it snows on a regular basis. I sort of burst his bubble by telling him that we had snow flurries just 20 miles north of our home here in the center of Texas on Tuesday. At least we didn’t have ice and the flurries did not last, but we had a wickedly cold wind earlier in the week. Today, back to the 70s!

Here, my iPad Mini can be seen with the original photo open on it. The purse-sized gouache palette is a Pocket Painter Palette that I bought years ago from Wet Paint. I don’t think it is offered anymore. I added a thin magnetic strip down the center to hold 4 additional metal pans from ExpeditionaryArt and a half-pan of titanium white.

a sweet worker

As I waited in the waiting room today during Bll’s cardio rehab, a sudden movement on my right side caught my eye. I had not noticed that the lady next to me had a service dog with her. The sweet dog came around her walker to stand at attention. Even after the lady told her to sit, she remained as she was, looking at her lady with the most lovely sympathetic brown eyes. I think the lady had ALS.

dinner with our church family

Last night the members of our small church ate out together at a Brenham restaurant as an early Thanksgiving. Each person shared something they are particularly thankful for this year — mine is obviously Bill’s safety through surgery and strong recovery. I’m also very thankful for friends all over the world that prayed for us through the whole ordeal!

We were sitting near some of our church kids, Blake and Kathleen. As I carried on a conversation with Kathleen, I drew my glass of water (with lots of lemons!) in one continuous ink line, as well as a few things laying next to it. A bit wonky but it amused the kids. I had already enjoyed a cup of hot tea (bringing my own tea bag, of course — Texas restaurants don’t always understand people drinking HOT tea!) but it was gone.

deep in . . . Sherwood Forest?

Last weekend we went with our daughter and son-in-law to look at several properties outside of Houston. They are wanting to move out of Houston’s suburbs to live in the country on 3 to 5 acres, hopefully in an area that won’t be swallowed up by Houston’s future expansion. Our son-in-law would also like a small in-law house included on the property, hoping to talk us into joining them — not sure what we think about that.

We love our log cabin, our church, and this area. But we do not have confidence in the home owners association controlling our community well. It needs to be brought up to current code and they seem to want to bury their heads in the sand and do nothing; the state could come in and shut us down at some point in the future, or demand compliance in a very short window of time which would mean paying top dollar for the work rather than getting bids for the best price.

The three houses were located in a forest and the roads have names like “Little John Circle” and “Robin Hood Lane”. The above property was a definite NO, as there was a creek that regularly floods the house. But I thought finding a Renaissance wagon there was fitting!

Mexican plum tree leaves

This week has been very wet, very windy, and a bit cooler. More leaves are falling off of the smaller trees on our property. Mostly we have oak, pine, and cedar — some of the oak trees are actually “evergreen”, holding on to their very green leaves until springtime brings new ones.

As close as I can figure, three smaller trees are Mexican plum trees. Hummingbirds love to nest in these as well as one of our crepe myrtles near one of the feeders. When we first looked at the property 5 years ago, there were tiny berries on the bare branches — oddly, they have never shown up again.

Anyway, I picked up a few leaves on my way in from the mailbox (squishing in the very soggy ground) and painted them — ink blob, smeared paint and all.

a red shirt day

Yesterday it was back to therapy for both of us: Bill’s continued cardio rehab and my “sketching people in waiting room” therapy. I name it such because the more I do it, the less intimidated I am at drawing people . . . and to be doing so where people can see me.

This is how far I got before my subjects all left. I still feel more confident doing a quick pencil layout sketch, even though I don’t draw exactly the same lines in ink.

And this is how far I got adding a bit of color before Bill was ready to leave. Which means that overall, I took about an hour.

Text was added after arriving home. . . . Well, after stopping to shop at H.E.B, picking up a pizza, arriving home and eating, reading a bit, watching a movie, washing dishes. In fact, I didn’t actually add the text and take the top photo until a thunderstorm woke me around 2:00 a.m. I couldn’t get back to sleep and love listening to the rain.

copy cat palette

I admit it — I am a copy cat. When I see something interesting that another artist is doing, I borrow the idea and adapt it for my own use. Maria Coryell-Martin of Expeditionary Art is now selling a special edition pocket palette (here) in collaboration with Samantha Dion Baker, author of Draw Your Day (here).

I already own several pocket palettes and I love putting together new configurations of paints in them. I copied the idea of the special edition palette using the paints I have on hand instead of those sold in the official one. Then I added 2 more greens — I like to be able to just grab a green when sketching instead of taking time to mix, and let the colors mingle together on the paper.

My changes:
quin. magenta —> quin. rose
cad. red scarlet —> transparent pyrrol scarlet
cad. yellow deep —> new gamboge
cad. yellow lt. —> hansa yellow med.
Jap green —> serpentine genuine
                       sap green
                       Prussian green
manganese blue —> cerulean blue
cobalt blue —> ultramarine blue
indigo —> indanthrone blue
buff titanium
iridescent gold —> monte amiata natural sienna
transparent red oxide
sepia —> raw umber
lunar black —> my own mixed black or payne’s gray
white gouache

a new little journal

A few weeks ago, I temporarily bound various watercolor paper folios in a leather cover. The folios are held in with elastic bands; after filling the whole book, I can sew them together and add a permanent cover. Then I can fill the leather cover with new paper.

Then I saw this small leather notebook cover . . .

It is made to hold ID, credit or debit cards, and a removable notebook the size of my Field Notes sketchbook. Instead, I took the watercolor paper strips left over from the full sized leather-bound journals and made a accordion-fold journal that’s a perfect fit!

These are the full-sized journals I put together.

reading a real book

Most of the people I see in the physical therapy waiting room are reading on their electronic devices or playing games or videos on the same. Even those I would guess are too old to enjoy such things! But today I found someone reading an actual book! Between that and her hat, I had to sketch her!

Bill’s birthday cookies

Today is my husband Bill’s birthday and instead of a cake he requested peanut butter cookies . . . so of course I drew some of them cooling on a paper bag. And so ends Inktober 2018.

Actually he had a huge piece of carrot cake yesterday when we ate out at Outback, so he had his cake and ate (cookies) too.

waiting . . .

I thought today was Bill’s last day of cardio rehab therapy, but he just signed up for another month. It seems that it is free for those on Medicare following his kind of surgery . . . and he is enjoying it! So more waiting room sketching for me . . .

This pencil layout is actually all I got down on paper before the two gentlemen were called in to their appointments. So I finished it without them.