mixing triads demo

 

Yesterday I joined Lisa Spangler and Maria Cornell-Martin on their YouTube demo (HERE) on mixing triads. Mostly on using a CMYK palette (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). At first, I was using phthalo blue GS, quinacridone magenta (Winsor & Newton’s PR122), Hansa yellow light, and Jane’s grey. But then I switched the phthalo blue to phthalo turquoise — a much nicer “cyan” and a great mixer! 

Lisa supplied a gorgeous photo on Instagram of a purple prickly pear cactus from Big Bend National Park. I did a quick ink sketch while she demonstrated how to make a simple folded sketchbook. I love the “desert green” she achieved by mixing the blue and yellow plus a bit of black. And dropping a purple mix into the wet green is brilliant!

For the final demo, I used a different triad: ultramarine, quinacridone red, and Hansa yellow medium. It was a bit of a disaster, with unwanted greens in the sky wash and my not allowing that wash to dry before adding the distant rock formations. Still, it was fun!

slender stem bitterweed

When we lived in our log cabin in Washington County, we were surrounded by all manner of wildflowers, mostly bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. The wildflower growing most abundantly in our new location, where a wee finger of the piney woods meets the post oak prairie, is this spindly yellow one. More often growing singly rather than in a cluster with "pinked" edged petals, I had trouble identifying what it actually was. 

At first I thought it was Stiff Greenthread -- the flower bit looked right but the basal leaves did not. Greenthread has whispy string-like strands of multi-branched leaves, hence the name. Now I have decided that this is Slender Stem Bitterweed. At least that's my best guess.

* UPDATE: Through Facebook converstations, I found that this might be a form of Coreopsis. That's what I was calling it last year but all my Texas field guides show photos of Coreopsis with a red splotch near the center of each petal. But apparently there is a variety without the red; this might be Coreopsis lanceolata, named for those lance-like basal leaves.

Indian paintbrush

 

Texas bluebonnets get most of the attention every springtime, but I also love the Indian paintbrush that grows alongside. In bright warm red, peach, or sometimes yellow — their cheerful color lasts much longer than the bluebonnets.

good intentions . . .

 

Honestly, I truly mean it when I say that I’m going to get back into the habit of sketching every day! Or at least every other day. But it just isn’t happening . . .

I began drawing this bluebonnet on Monday from a photo taken on Sunday. Then added the background bit on Tuesday. And didn’t get around to finishing until today (Thursday!).

Between my pollen / sinus issues and Bill’s chronic pain (no, the neck surgeries did not provide permanent relief and the one pain killer that worked for him has been phased out, no longer available), neither one of us get much sleep at night. So we “just function” each day, getting what needs to be accomplished done but not much else. So perhaps I need to lighten up on my personal expectations: I’ll try to sketch every week, even if it takes 4 days to finish a simple sketch.

an escape artist

 

Goats are notorious at escaping their fenced-in pastures. Last week Norbert managed to squeeze through TWO fences and join the neighbor’s two goats.

in remembrance . . .

 

Yesterday we took a trip to Needville, TX where our granddaughter Jayna’s high school theater group was doing a one-act play of “Hiding in the Open”, about two Polish sisters’ experiences during the Holocaust. 

The performance was open only to participating students’ parents and grandparents, with virus restrictions and social distancing in place.

I was blown away by the quality of both acting and stage production! The story was very moving — After the play ended and the lights came up, it was a bit disconcerting to see the cast acting like normal teenagers. They had been so believably immersed in their roles!

a mystery

 

Yesterday Bill found this very unusual black mushroom growing tall between the feed shed and goat pen. I looked in a field guide and did searches online, but I never found anything quite like it. It stood about 10-12” tall on a sturdy black trunk, had a flattened center with a small nub, and delicate “petals”.

Today I went back out to look again — only to find it completely gone. Apparently eaten by one of our silly goats.

my “studio” set . . . for now

 

I have mostly been using Pocket Palettes, letting my old plastic pans of watercolor go to waste. So I decided to put together any pans I still have in a Neocolor II crayon tin, matching them to whatever my current Pocket Palette color choices are to keep on my desk, adding metal pans of any colors I don’t already have in plastic pans . . . Eventually the plastic pans will be used up. These metal pans from arttoolkit.com are also available in a larger size that fits big brushes — with these shallower pans, you can load a big brush without ruining the tips digging paint out.

My current palette choices are painted out on these 2 sketchbook pages, including 2 “light gray” mixes that I stirred together directly in the pan with a toothpick. Not sure if I will continue using them or not — just an experiment for now.

this morning’s breakfast and yesterday’s sketch

Lately I have been distracted from sketching by errands, weekly shopping, and a bad reaction to my second Covid-19 shot . . . I’m now trying to get back in the habit of quick daily drawings.

This morning I walked over to our daughter’s house to “steal” one of their Easter eggs for my breakfast. This one was dyed by our son-in-law Michael — it had fine metallic gold veining over the turquoise color (which bled through to the egg in a few spots) but I’m not sure my gold Gansai paint lines show up in the photo.

Later our daughter Kristen asked me how many eggs I took — only the one, I responded. Apparently sometime during the night their great Pyrenees / golden retriever mix, Bradley, helped himself to some! Now they are finding wee bits of egg shell around their house.

Yesterday’s drawing was done while waiting for our cat, Scottie, to calm down enough to change his flea collar. Neither of our cats mind wearing them and they hold ID tags. But they are not the easiest things to removed after 8 months. Scottie does not like being held for any length of time, though he does love being touched . . . on his terms, of course.