magenta - yellow - cyan palette

I have the Mother (or is that Grandmother?) of all Head & Chest Colds. Absolutely no energy to do anything beyond coughing and blowing my nose. But I’m “sick of being sick”, so this is my distraction for the day.

When Maria Coryell-Martin redesigned her Pocket Palette using a lighter weight metal and more streamlined lower edge, I was quick to order one and use it as my main carry-along palette. But I still keep the old one filled, ready to grab when my color-mood changes. This pigment selection is based on the brighter magenta - yellow - cyan colors used by today’s printers, plus I added a few convenience colors to fill it out.

I had thought that the dark gold was quinacridone gold, but it is actually an experimental mix learned from Jane Blundell of quin. gold and goethite stirred together. As such, it’s more of a neutral earth yellow than a gold, and should be placed between the darker blue and burnt sienna. I have always ordered my colors in “rainbow order”, followed by neutral earth tones.

There wasn’t enough room on this journal page to include every color in the color chart, so I just mixed the basics for a mixing reminder. The colors in this palette are:

PERMANENT ROSE
QUINACRIDONE GOLD + GOETHITE
HANSA YELLOW MEDIUM
PHTHALO GREEN, YS
PHTHALO GREEN, BS
MANGANESE BLUE HUE
PHTHALO BLUE, RS
BURNT SIENNA
PAYNE’S GRAY

artists’ copyrights

Several times over the years, I have been asked if one of my sketches could be used for this or that project or purpose. The person has always asked me first, waiting until I give my permission before proceeding. I usually said yes to them after checking to see how it would be used.

Even simple sketches are the copyright property of the artist. As such, others need to be respectful and not feel that they are free to help themselves to others’ work simply because it has been published on the internet. Let’s please honor each other as artists and always ASK FIRST.

Recently a sketch and post to my blog was taken by someone who posted it to her new web site. She did NOT ask or receive my permission to use this sketch beforehand, but notified me after the fact by a comment on my Facebook post of the sketch. Because she took my work without permission, I have asked her to remove the post from her site. At this time, she has not responded. Hopefully she will do so soon.

UPDATE: My work was finally removed from this person’s blog, though no apology was offered. The thing is, I have followed this person off and on through the years — she should have known better! 

hot sauce for the Pastor

We met our Pastor at a Mexican restaurant for breakfast on Friday. As the waitress brought his and Bill’s dishes, she set the small bowl of salsa next to Bill. Then told Pastor Gary she’d have to go get another bowl for him.

He just smiled and took the large bottle out of her hand, saying “That won’t be a problem!”

a bucket of peanuts

Our good friend B.J., when we are trying to decide where to eat out together, refuses to go to Texas Roadhouse. She says that allowing peanut shells to be thrown on the floor just teaches children (and adults!) to be messy and disrespectul of others’ property.

She’s probably right. But we ate out with some other friends on Thursday and went to the Roadhouse. For a short bit, Bill carefully placed peanut shells on his plate . . .

. . . but by the time that we left, he’d given up all pretense at being neat.

a bit more whimsy

I no longer collect bears, I’ve never collected Boyd’s treasure boxes, and I don’t collect ceramic boxes. But when I saw this wee mouse house years ago, I had to buy it. Just because.

The larger bear was a souvenir from the Hays House, a restaurant in Council Grove, KS that has been continuously run since covered wagons came through town, which was at that time the edge of civilization (the Last Chance General Store is a bit west of the restaurant).

The wee ceramic bear came from Scotland, a leftover from when I used to collect and sew vintage-style teddy bears. The itty-bitty mouse reading the newspaper came inside the house.

And just how do you spell “whimsy” anyway? My dictionary app says with an “e” but spell-check says no “e”.

just for fun . . .

Being an avid hot tea drinking book lover, this quote from a favorite author quickly caught my eye.

Then, instead of drawing the obvious (really Large cup of tea and Big book), I decided to draw this toy cat with a wee cup of tea (it’s big to her!) and a tiny book . . . A Tolkien Treasury in honor of another favorite author and writer of Big Books.

a few books to be read . . .

It has been unbelievably frigid this past week, at least by south-central Texas standards. Even the thought of going outside to sketch brings a shiver!

Instead of sketching, I’ve been reading quite a bit. Several books at once even. Continuing to read Joshua in the Bible, going through several historical fiction or mystery ebooks on my iPad each week, and leisurely going through several art books from other sketchbook artists and urban sketchers.

None of which are in the stack of books above; I just like the look of them together! Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy, a small book of Psalms with bits of illustrated manuscript, and an old volume of Robert Burns poems.

Bill built the Morris chair and footstool for me a few years ago as a surprise while I was off “granny nannying”. The bookcase next to it is one he built in high school in the early 1970s.

my non-purse

Lately I’ve used this laptop sleeve bag that I found on Amazon instead of a purse. It came with rings on the sides, so all I needed to add was a shoulder strap (I had an extra one from another bag).

I originally ordered this pouch to hold my new iPad Mini, but it has actually been a great everyday
purse. So of course, I ended up sketching it. It holds normal purse stuff, my cell phone and iPad, a small soft-cover Stillman & Birn sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, a couple of fountain pens, a bit of a kneaded eraser, a pocket palette and waterbrush, and a paper towel. Oh, and a couple of tea bags . . . Texas restaurants don’t seem to understand the concept of a hot cup of tea.

a cool old building

A few days ago we headed down to our eldest son’s in Beasley where I was to switch my iPhone 6 out for a slightly newer model. It turned out that my new phone, picked up the day before at Sugarland’s Apple Store, had defective software so I am without a phone until next week.

On the drive home, we stopped at Dairy Queen in Belleville for ice cream. Bill went inside while I waited in the car . . . and I noticed this cool old building across the street. I’ve seen this Mexican Cantina many times as we drove through this town south of us, but I had never noticed the original name on the stone building: “Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.”, spelled out in individual rocks on what looks like a stucco background. I like how the edge of the roof had trim made of small rocks standing on end. I drew the building in a water-soluble brown ink but later wish I had used a waterproof ink, as much of the cool details seem to blend together.

I used a photograph because it was quickly getting dark and we were getting ready to drive on.

another game for Macy

After going out for a seafood dinner, Bill and I went to another of Macy’s basketball games today. School classes have not yet resumed but the Lady Hornets met the Navasota team . . . and lost horribly. They scored 6; the other team earned around 38, I think. Sometimes it just happens.

During the game, I drew the team mascot in my journal.

another home in our neighborhood

This nearby house used to be a storage barn for a recreational vehicle. Then it was just general storage, plus a meeting place for the local home owner’s association. But the owners downsized, selling their house and turning the barn into what is known in this area as a “barndominium”.

roses in January

Yesterday afternoon we decided to meet up with some friends to eat out. We left for College Station around 3:30 . . . only to find that most of our choices of restaurants closed at 4:00 due to it being a holiday. (But, hey! The streets were easy to navigate with the college kids gone!)

We ended up at Razzoo’s, not my favorite place. They say they are Cajun but they really aren’t. And the waitress looked totally confused when I asked for a hot cup of tea. So I asked for a hot cup of water (“you know, a coffee mug stuck in the microwave 2 minutes.”) as I carry tea bags with me. She managed to bring me a lukewarm mug of water . . .

Yet those at our table ordering coffee had no problems and were offered several refills. NOT FAIR TO HOT TEA DRINKERS!

Anyway, it was 32° Fahrenheit, yet the roses outside the building were in full bloom. So as we were leaving, I pinched one to take with me and sketched it later at home. As it warmed up, the fragrance was delightful!

final sketch of 2017

Last night, I wanted to draw something. But it was dark and I wasn’t particularly inspired by anything at the moment — I just drew the things on the side table next to me, mostly in continuous line. (The sermon notes were jotted down previously; no relation to the sketch.)