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 . . .