weekend sketches

Yesterday morning we drove to Needville where 2 of our grandsons were baptized. I scribbled down some sermon notes in pencil, cleaning it up a bit later in ink. Afterwards, we ate out at a Mexican restaurant — one of the final points made had been on the meaning of verses 34-35 of Luke 14, so I sketched the salt shaker and bits around it. 

From the previous day, I cleaned up all my fountain pens, then refilled just these 3 Lamy Safari pens. I have fancier pens and a few that are more expensive — but I always return to Lamy pens for sheer dependability. The charcoal one is filled with De Atramentis Document Grey ink, the red one (with a “fude” nib I made from sticking a regular nib in Bill’s vise and gently bending it) has a “sepia” ink I mixed using Document Brown and Document Black, and the new terra color pen is filled with Document Brown.

I wish I had left this alone after painting in the pens. I grabbed blue and black crayons to color in the sketchbook but it looked better before.   😒

last sketches from Ratcliff

One last journal entry from our time at Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area in Davy Crockett National Forest — I took my time deciding if I would add watercolor or not and if so, how much. Finally I decided to leave this mostly ink sketches.

This cool old log shelter was built by the C.C.C. in 1936 and is a very popular rental area for family gatherings. Sadly, our camp host told us that it will be torn down. The forestry department simply doesn’t have the necessary funds for repair and maintenance on it.

Next month, we’re heading out with our travel trailer to a western finger of Sam Houston National Forest on the northeast edge of Lake Conroe.

through the trees

 This is one of my views, looking up above our heads. I love these tall trees❣️

random camp sketches

 

I don’t like marshmallows as much as Bill but when you have a campfire you gotta toast marshmallows, right? I like them lightly golden; Bill incinerates his.

We were a bit further north than home and I found a leaf turned red, even though it is not yet autumn. The campsite address was Dogwood Lane so I’m guessing this is a dogwood leaf?

extreme sunlight filtering through the piney woods

 After setting up camp with our travel trailer, Bill cooked our dinner as I sketched. We are surrounded by the piney woods yet the hot sun trickled through to light up the surrounding trees with bright yellow!

We only have one close neighbor in this camp site, and he’s the local campsite host. Mostly shady in spite of this sketch. No motor craft are allowed on the lake so it’s very quiet.

no straight roads in Texas

 

Coming from Kansas with its normal east-west / north-south road grid, both in city and country, Bill has always complained about Texas roads. None of them go east-west or north-south. None of them are straight, as if road crews thought “the curvier, the better!” Many in cities go in a complete circle. Then there are the names! One highway can have as many as 3 or 4 different names!

Somewhere in this inaccurate tangle of a map is the route we drove to Davy Crockett National Forest. We had considered camping in the Sam Houston National Forest but I didn’t like the likelihood of alligators there . . . . Only to find out there’s a current warning upon entering Davy Crockett to watch out for alligators. 😬

decisions, decisions . . .

After taking a wee break from sketching, I decided to plan what I might take when we go camping in our travel trailer later this week. 

First, I was going to take my new (and larger) Folio Palette. But we’re packing light and I may or may not sketch while exploring the Davy Crockett National Forest. So I decided to load a regular Pocket Palette instead.

I filled it with lots of mini pans of color, especially greens and browns. Then decided after drawing it in my sketchbook that I needed to simplify. So I switched to fewer colors in regular size pans, still heavy on greens and browns.

Now maybe I’ll even be motivated to sketch . . .

(I absolutely LOVE how easy it is to switch pans of color in and out of these pocket palettes from Expeditionary Art!)