Sketch With Me: favorite things

In our log cabin, I found myself spending very little time in my art studio. With its location being in the loft, accessible by a steep ladder-stair, it wasn’t the easiest place to get to for these old legs. 5 1/2 years ago those steep stairs didn’t seem such a big deal but now my legs protest! There is a good amount of mostly-north natural light, but being up against the steep roofline is uncomfortably hot in the summer. So my studio became more of a place to store art tools rather than a place to paint.

At Kristen’s house, where we will be living temporarily while converting the barn into a house, there is a wonderful little office in the northeast corner — lots of light from 2 sides! Now that my art table is set up with tools set out ready to use, I’m spending a lot more time there. Now it’s so much easier to leave and return, taking care of other things while letting ink or paint dry.

This weekend is the Sketch With Me virtual sketch crawl with the prompt “FAVORITE THINGS”. So what better than my favorite art tools? I have two more additional brushes not included that are favorites: my Lowe-Cornell ultra round #8 and #10.

In the Prang box are my most-used watercolor choices:
Quinacridone rose, pyrrol scarlet, quinacridone gold, hansa yellow medium, green apatite, perylene green, cerulean blue chromium, ultramarine blue, transparent red oxide, raw umber, and a mixed gray (ultramarine and burnt sienna, also sold as “Jane’s Grey”).

My new Demi palette holds whatever new combination I’m currently playing with; at present, that is José Naranja’s limited palette he uses in his fabulous mostly-ink sketchbooks. I’m not so sure about having both indigo and payne’s gray, both so similar.

My favorite Pocket Palette is the black one, filled with every one of the 28 colors that I keep in my large Schminke studio palette. Most colors are actually from Daniel Smith; I just keep them in a Schminke box.

Choosing favorite brushes is easy — these are the ones I grab most often. Choosing favorite fountain pens is a bit more challenging, but these are the top 3: a Lamy Safari, my new Pilot Namiki Falcon, and a tiny Kaweco Liliput.

Below is a color chart of all the colors of watercolor I keep in my studio.