a few feathers

Just a few feathers I’ve picked up, including two from our cats’ favorite toys.

view from home

We have had an unbelievably long stretch of 100°-plus temperatures in our part of Texas. Only a scant bit of rain on two separate days, enough to slightly green up the pastures but leaving the dirt dry. Enough wind on one afternoon to damage our back patio and shop roof, but still hot and dry.

Obviously, too hot to sketch outdoors — this is the view looking out the front doors of our wee barndominium from the comfort of a double recliner.

eating out . . .

We went out to eat in the middle of the afternoon at Spring Creek Barbecue in Cypress. They kept bringing us fresh-baked rolls straight from the oven — so of course we kept saying “yes, thank you!” Didn’t want to be rude and refuse them (they are VERY good, just like Bill’s grandma used to make!). So I drew one in the new ZigZag 2” sketchbook I just started. After sketching my wee wooden palette on the first page, of course.

Drove home through Real Rain with lots of wind, only to find that the wind had knocked out 4 of our back patio supports (heavy cedar posts), causing part of the roof over Bill’s woodshop to buckle.

a bit of my process . . . sometimes

This post shows a wee bit of the process I sometimes go through in developing a sketchbook page. I am often inspired in unexpected ways.

After finishing all of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels written by Dorothy L. Sayers, published 1923 - 1939, I found four more books dealing with the amateur detective and his wife, written by Jill Paton Walsh using Sayers’ notes and fictional letters for her stories published 1998 - 2013. Early this morning I was beginning “The Atterbury Emeralds” when I came across this little bit about gentleman’s gentleman Bunter keeping a Commonplace Book. I had never heard this term before, so I looked it up. Here is the section from my borrowed ebook:

I often copy quotes or book passages in journals as a way of remembering them; this has been a habit since I was a teenager, though there was no art in books at that time. Who knew that there was actually a term for these books?!! So I planned out a sketchbook page where I could jot down this quote and the definition — adding some of my sketchbooks from my bookshelf.

First, I usually plot out some of my idea in pencil. Since I knew there would be lots of text here, I drew in lines using the Everyday Artist Sketchliner stencil, seen behind the right side of my sketchbook in the above photo. It can be found online at Cheap Joe’s art supplies.

Sometimes, especially if the sketchbook post is illustrating a block of text, I ink in the words first. After the ink is fully dry, I erase the pencil lines. Then I go ahead and add the chosen bit of art. Other times, I do the illustration first, then maybe add text if wanted. It all depends on my mood or the subject or inspiration!

The sketchbooks I just happened to randomly grab show a variety of styles I might choose. The bottom book is a purchased Venezia Sketchbook by Fabriano — Love the paper but the binding broke down in this book before I finished it. The next one I bound myself, making my own hard cover. The greenish one on top of that is also hand-bound, this time using a gutted antique book cover. The uppermost one is my first attempt at making an accordion-fold sketchbook. I love the variety of trying new things! (I see now that I should have added some shadows to the book stack, but I think I’ll just leave it like this.)

thirsty firewheel

Our extremely high heat (over 100° f.) and lack of rain has really stunted the area wildflowers this year. Bill brought me this wee Firewheel (aka Indian Blanket flower) when dragging the trash can back to the shed on Tuesday. Much smaller than usual and “droopy”. Like the rest of us . . .

waiting . . .

This morning I waited in a very empty waiting room at the periodontist’s office, drawing what was in front of me. (color added later)

The hygienist and I shared memories of Fiddler on the Roof productions we had seen — I once saw Chaim Topol play at Swope Park in Kansas City. She is expecting her third daughter and says her husband says, like Tevye, he will have 5 daughters. Goes around singing “If I were a rich man”!

Last pages in my ZigZag sketchbook.

Texas bluebells

Recently our daughter told us that a local grocery store had Blue Bell ice cream on sale. We spent the rest of the day talking about making an ice cream run — but never did. It’s just Too Hot to get out! So I sketched these bluebells instead.

Originally the Brenham Creamery Company, the famous Texas ice cream brand was changed to Blue Bell in 1930, named for this elusive Texas wildflower. A friend of mine sent me photos of blue bells she found growing on her property.