comparing 2 earth reds

 With only one page left in this Hahnemuhle watercolor book, I decided to use it to compare 2 very similar earth reds, both from Daniel Smith. I’ve been using Lunar Red Rock for a while now — it’s the same PR101 pigment as Jane Blundell’s favored Indian Red but this one is a bit more transparent than the very opaque Indian Red.

On one of Maria Coryell-Martin’s recent Live Demos, Piemontite genuine was mentioned and I finally got a sample to play with. It’s one of the Primatek watercolors made from natural minerals but looks very similar to Lunar Red Rock. I painted blends of each of them with 2 earth yellows, 2 blues I use most often, Buff Titanium, and Green Apatite, another Primatek that I prefer over Sap Green.

I really can’t see much difference. Though I love working with natural minerals, the Lunar pigments cost much less so I think I’ll stick with Lunar Red Rock.

Sierra’s new home

Ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions and erratic enforcement of safety measures at our granddaughter’s school’s F.F.A. barn in Houston continue to make it difficult for the kids to take care of their animals. Mikala has decided to move her cow, Sierra, out to the farm as soon as we can get a new enclosure built for her. (She is quick to point out that this would not be necessary had we not taken over the existing barn for our home! 😂)

The framing is mostly done and we are waiting for the carpenter to bring in the siding. The goats and donkeys enjoy checking out his work. (My sketch is from a different angle that showed three tall Loblolly pines to the east — not seen in the photo below.)

Thanksgiving 2020

Half of our kids and their families joined us out on the barn’s large patio for visiting, feasting, and game-playing yesterday. I tried making a new pull-apart garlic herb bread, using some fresh rosemary that was found growing near the swimming pool.

broken but still pretty

 

When I go out in the early morning to take care of the donkeys and goats, I sometimes still see a few pretty leaves. Once in a while, even some red ones from a small tree of unknown variety growing next to the food storage shed.

But they have been nibbled on, muddied and trampled by the goats stampeding for the hay I set out for them — it’s rare to see an unbroken one these days. There can also be insect holes and fungus spots.

Yet like us when life has “broken” us a bit — there is still beauty to be found.

time for a cup of cocoa

 

I mix my own instant cocoa mix from powdered milk and dry cocoa powder — that way, I can choose my own level of “sweet”. The mixes you can buy at the store are way too sweet! I can also choose stevia or other sweeteners instead of processed sugar. Last night I mixed a cup in my bone china Scottie mug . . . then added marshmallows, negating the “healthier” aspect.

I messed up when drawing the end table so I left it unpainted. Bill designed it for me years ago with a drawer to hold sketching tools and an inlaid checkerboard in darker wood on the top to play games with grandkids. I drew a few of the intersecting lines before realizing I had more than 8 squares width-wise. Oops!

The lamp base shown is to an antique lamp that came from Bill’s Swedish grandmother’s farmhouse. Maybe I should draw the whole thing some day.

a random vine as I wait

 

Another day waiting for Bill as he does his post-surgery physical therapy. Parked facing west instead of the usual east, I see this random vine growing up a small tree instead of the usual plain brick wall. Color added later at home.

Only 2 more days of PT followed by a phone conference with the surgeon’s PA. Hopefully he will then be cleared medically.

a random morning sketch

 

Nothing much going on today . . . Just a random sketch of my morning cup of tea. A bit wonky, drawn in continuous contour line directly in ink.

After 7 years of using an electric stove, we are finally back to gas. I had forgotten how hot the handle of my little tea pot can get on a gas range. I keep this little woven potholder handy, made by our granddaughter Mikala years ago.

our falcon returns

I first sketched our Aplomado Falcon last January (seen here) and he has often visited the farm since then. Last week I saw him sitting atop the purple martin house as I was driving down the long driveway to go to a dentist’s appointment, fairly dwarfing the structure. I slowly drove around to get a closer photo — and he flew away before I could get my phone up. So I drew what he sort of looked like from an online photo.

*UPDATE — Silly me, I wrote the quote in the lower right wrong. It should read:

Worship is not singing songs, it’s a life lived before the Father.

Church is not a building, it’s a diverse people worldwide.

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship with the Son of God.

UPDATE 2 — I just heard another line to add:

Truth is not an abstract, Truth is a Person.

comparing grey mixes

 

My friend John Lokke introduced me to watercolor in 2005, teaching me with his personal palette of 12 favorites. They included burnt umber and raw umber (“milk chocolate and dark chocolate”) but he never used the siennas. I always wondered why he detested burnt sienna — after all, he had a gorgeous head of “burnt sienna” hair!

John’s favorite gray and black mixes combined ultramarine blue and burnt umber so that is what I started with, but in recent years I have used burnt sienna instead — so I thought I would compare the two. There really isn’t that big of difference, not surprising since both are the same PBr7 pigment. (I do see now that the blue-gray next to black on the lower row should have had more blue in it.)

While I was playing, I made a color chart on the back of the same card. Just for fun. John taught us to do these as well, to really get to know our paints.

ink only or added watercolor?

I’ve been playing around with using a pale gray ink in a Kuretake brush pen for adding shadows to an ink sketch by adding De Atramentis thinner to De Atramentis Document black ink. This would save time over mixing a bit of ink and water on a palette. Most attempts were still way too dark.

But by adding just a smidgen of the thinned ink to a sample vial, then filling the space left with thinner, I finally got it light enough! It can be brushed on as-is or, for larger spaces, brushed on a pre-wettened surface.

Now’s there’s  a new quandary when sketching: do I leave a drawing “ink only” or do I add a bit of watercolor wash on top?

leaves dancing in the breeze

These leaves were sketched yesterday after I went for a walk in the south pasture. It may be sumac — not really sure — that’s growing on the other side of our fence.

I added watercolor just now while sitting in the car in Navasota. Bill is inside at his bi-weekly physical therapy; visitors are banned to the parking lot. There is a plain brick wall in front of me and not much else of interest, hence my finishing yesterday’s sketch.

 

an old silk rose

 

This old silk boutonniere is another saved treasure that was rediscovered as I was clearing out old boxes. Bill wore it at our daughter’s wedding over 22 years ago. When I came across it, I laid it on my dresser next to an antique picture frame and oil lamp . . . . Our black cat, Scotty Dubh, promptly stole it, claiming it as his new toy. I rescued it and now he leaves it alone.

I drew this directly in ink with a fude nib pen, thinking I would keep it loose. But my normal tighter detail style still broke through — perhaps I should just accept that this is “me”. I added a bit of shading with a grey-blue watercolor pencil, kept dry in places and watercolor added over it in others. At least that was simplified . . .

Early this morning I couldn’t sleep. The farm was thickly covered with a blanket of fog, though that didn’t stop the donkeys from calling out their good mornings. I fixed a mug of Earl Grey tea and went out to drink it with them in the north pasture. Very peaceful morning.

books, books, and more books . . .

 

A few months ago, I found this great word and jotted it down to remember it. I am guilty of buying books that never seem to get read, though I had every intention of doing so when it was purchased.

This old oak bookshelf holds only a very few of our books. Many of these I have read (there’s a lot of Tolkien in there, plus some Cathy Johnson naturalist books) but many I have not. Most books are on the floor-to-wall shelves in my studio.

Bill built this shelf when he was in high school; his mother had it for many years and we latched on to it later on. He learned to love building with wood early in life from a grandfather and never lost it.

morning cup of tea

 

Just a quick sketch of my morning tea . . .

The backsplash tiles actually look like planks of barn wood but I didn’t bother to draw in the grain lines.

an almost red leaf

 

This morning while caring for the farm beasties, I thought I had found another red leaf — but it’s actually rather brown, isn’t it?