oak leaves

I don’t know what variety of oak tree this branch fell from — there are perhaps a full dozen different types of oak trees native to this forest known as the “piney-woods”. But it was in my path so I drew it.

some tree bark

This week we have returned to camping at Cagle in the Sam Houston National Forest. Sitting under the camper’s awning, the differences in these nearby trees’ bark caught my eye. The left one is a sweet gum tree and the right one, a long-leaf pine.

Sketched with a seldom-used Pentel Pocketbrush Pen that came with sepia ink. I had hoped that the ink would be waterproof like the black version of this pen but it is not. For this sketch, that works fine — I worked the washes with just a bit of water.

UPDATE: looking closer into the canopy above, I now think this pine is a Loblolly; a Long-leaf pine is about 10’ away.

flamingo pond

About three miles from home (as the flamingo flies?), we pass this beautiful home on Magnolia Road. A complex bit of bridge leads to an artificial island full of flamingos. Not the live kind though — area flamingos are more likely to inhabit Galveston Island.

some favorite tools

These are two of my absolute favorite fountain pens, though my tough Lamy Safari pens are still my daily “workhorses”. The Pilot Namiki Falcon was a gift from Bill and has a very flexible nib. The Kaweco Liliput, a gift from our son Matt, isn’t described as having a flex nib but the more mine has been used, the looser and more flexible the nib has become.

I chose to add this bottle of ink, J. Herbin’s “Lie de The”, because I love the classic bottle shape. Mostly, I use De Atramentis Document inks in my fountain pens.

This morning was a bit cloudy when I took this photo, causing it to look a bit gray. But I’m also using my more muted granulating watercolors, giving this sketch a bit of an antique feel.

testing ink and welcoming autumn

This is the last of 4 “shimmering” ink samples I bought, looking for an ink that would change color while writing text. Not much variance with this ‘Emerald of Chivor’ from J. Herbin but the color is lovely!

And just because autumn has arrived, I switched to my “earthy granulating” palette for everyday use. And drug out this Derwent Graphitint palette to play with as well. 

Then drew it directly in ink while I was at it.

my “Earthy Granulating” palette

another ink sample

This text was written in another “shimmering” ink: Diamine Arctic Blue using  a Lamy “F” nib. The color-changing effects would be more pronounced using a bolder nib. This one doesn’t really shine, but changes from teal to turquoise to blue while writing — this color-changing is the reason I bought these ink samples!

The cat toy is our Scottie Dubh’s current favorite, and he was a bit miffed that I withheld it while drawing. 😾

something new

Our grandson Quen had a busy summer traveling (as did his parents). While waiting at a German airport on the way to Israel, he saw this cream colored Lamy Safari fountain pen and asked if he could buy it for me. I usually match ink color to pen but this time I’m trying something different. 

I bought 4 samples of “shimmering” inks from Goulet Pens, more for the color-changing when writing text than for any metallic shine. My first try was using Lamy calligraphy nibs, both 1.1 and 1.5 — at first, I thought they didn’t like the textured paper of my Etchr sketchbook but now I think the particles in the ink clog the nibs too much. (The particles in the ink require pen nibs to be cleaned and flushed more often.) There is some shiny copper in the writing on the left page but not as much as when I switched to a regular “M” nib. The ink on the right page had no effects at all, no matter which nib was used.

BTW, photos do not capture the metallic bits of color but they are there in person. 

The ink on the left page is De Atramentis Cyan-Blue Copper. It’s nice but I’d really like to find some of their Cyan-Blue Bronze instead without having to pay over $20 from the UK. I have two more samples to try later on.

flying above me . . .

A few weeks ago we went with our daughter to Murdoch’s Backyard Pub for fish & chips. It was still around 100° so instead of eating on their back patio, we went into this small air conditioned building. I was halfway through my meal when I happened to lookup — and found a dragon looking down at me! So I took a few photos and sketched it later.

Murdoch’s is named for the owner’s beloved dog and they encourage customers to bring photos of their own dogs (and a few cats) to hang on the wall. They also set out food and shelters for local feral cats.

Our daughter’s church lost the lease on their building so now they meet out on the patio of Murdoch’s each Sunday morning. Usually the food is great but this time, not so much. Apparently no one told the two young cooks on duty that salted cod should be thoroughly rinsed before cooking.

new sketchbooks, old covers

When we were moving from our log cabin to the farm, I tore my remaining full sheets of art paper down to size for binding into sketchbooks to make them easier to move. That small stash of paper included one of my favorites, Nideggen paper, which is now no longer available. What I had was just enough to fill two small sketchbooks.

Obtaining these antique book covers was a fun adventure in itself! I saw several old books thrown in a recycle bin in Brenham — our granddaughter Jayna volunteered to do a bit of dumpster diving and rescued some for me. These two were printed in the late 1800s and seemed perfect for the paper. I finally got around to sewing the folios and gluing the resulting book block and end papers in place this week. I use two of Bill’s great-grandmother’s sad irons as weights when binding sketchbooks. The blue glue stick with silicon bristles came with one of Bill’s woodworking orders — works great for spreading thin glue!

The dark green one is embossed with the title “Learn to do Practical Word-Book by Doing” — perhaps an old student copy book? The other one, “The Practical Speller, Second Book”, was specifically a Texas school text book; the retail price is printed on the cover as 15 cents, with the exchange price 8 cents.

playing with an old friend

Just for fun, I drug out my old Whiskey Sketchers Private Stock palette a few days ago — I don’t think this one is available anymore. I haven’t used it for many years, yet just a fine spritz of water and the colors came alive! It’s filled with Daniel Smith tube watercolors.

I was trying for looser shadows and splashes in this sketch but it still seems a bit tight to me. I need more practice!

recent reading

I read a lot. Often I am still “inside” the book’s story when I’ve come to the end of the words — so I sketch it in my journal or jot down a quote from the book, remembering.

Susanna Kearsley novels have long been favorites of mine, especially  “The Winter Sea”. This latest book, along with “The Firebird”, are related to the same characters and historical period as “The Winter Sea”. I struggled to get into the story of “The Vanished Days”; it seemed to drag on a bit. But eventually I was hooked — the surprise reveal near the end was unexpected and made a great story!

new sketchbook

As usual, I began this new journal with a quote and some form of art supplies — this time, simple swatches of all 22 watercolors that I use. I’m going smaller than my normal size as well, with the A6 size Etchr Sketchbook (4.1 x 5.8”) with 230 gsm 100% cotton cold press paper. I love this brand but they can be a bit pricey.

The cover is a white rough-weave cotton. Made to be customizable but I never know quite what to do with it. So it mostly just gets a bit dirty by the time I fill the pages. Any suggestions on what to do with the cover out there? 

speaking piffle

When I purchased those Dorothy Sayers Mysteries DVDs earlier this year, it was decided that we would save them to take on our next camping trip (set for the end of September). But that sprained knee of mine turned out to be a partially dislocated kneecap — it popped back into place on its own but it needs to be kept elevated, iced, and wrapped with a compression bandage.

So I went ahead and watched the videos. And practiced sketching faces. These don’t in any way look like Edward Petherbridge or Harriet Walter, but it gave me an excuse to jot down a few quotes. My favorite is Harriet’s reply to Peter after one of his many marriage proposals to her: “If anyone ever marries you, it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle!”

This is also the end of my Seawhite Travel Journal, begun in January. Here are the inside front and back pages where I tend to gather quotes.