today’s project

My current sketch journal is almost filled — only 10 more pages after the sketch I’m working on today. I considered buying another one, but then remembered that a few months ago I found a long-forgotten stash of watercolor paper in my old steamer trunk.

Bill found this vintage trunk years ago and refurbished it for me, adding a new cedar tray inside. It’s where I store bookmaking supplies and other art stuff. Inside, I recently found some quarter sheets of Arches, Saunders Waterford, Hahnemuhle, plus a variety pack from Cheap Joe’s.

Today I folded and tore down the Arches rough WC paper to make a 5 1/2 x 7 1/2” landscape sketchbook. There were also 2 leftover 3” strips of Fabriano Artistico paper — these, I folded into a 3” square accordion book. Both are being pressed with antique irons. Now I need to dig deeper in the trunk to figure out what I can use for covers . . .

my palette collection

 

A follower on Instagram asked if I would do a post about my Art Toolkit palette collection, so I took photos of each of them this morning. Do I need more than one watercolor palette? Of course not!

When we downsized 10 years ago to an 800 square ft. living space, I gave away many things that I used to collect. Palettes are something I can collect and enjoy that take up very little space. Besides, it’s fun to put together various combinations (always subject to change 😂).

The 2 front pocket palettes in the first photo are the ones I’m currently using for autumn: one of neutrals/monochrome colors and one of granulating pigments. Behind those, there’s one I put together while reading John Harrison’s book, “Pen & Wash” — I like to try out other artists’ color choices as a learning tool. The red palette is the limited edition “Grow Untamed” set with 4 additional colors that I added to the original 6. I put together the turquoise “Texas gulf coast, prairies, & piney woods” after seeing Lisa Spangler set up something similar for a class she taught in Houston. This one gets used a lot!

Next are my Demi Palettes. I love this size especially for trying out limited palettes. From the upper left: the “Rainglow” fluorescent palette (not sure how to use these yet), the “Baby Cactus” set (2 pans have been temporarily moved to the Christmas palette), my “forest” set I like to take camping, the Christmas palette I just put together, and the limited edition CMYK palette.

Next are 2 Folio palettes: one for landscapes inspired by artist Sarah Burns and one of larger pans containing basic colors that lives on my art desk.

Lastly, 2 gouache palettes, which I’ve only played a bit with. The larger one with more colors stays on my art desk and the smaller one travels with me. Like my watercolor palettes, I place colors beginning in the front left in rainbow order, from cool reds to deep blue/purple followed by neutrals.

after playing fetch

Keeping it simple: I sketched this in blue (I keep blue lead in this mechanical pencil), then added a few ink lines. Our corgi, Butters, wears herself out fetching her favorite rubber ball . . . then is eager to play again after a short rest.

and the winner is . . .

After watching Lisa Spangler @sideoats do a short video mixing quinacridone magenta and peacock to get a near-blue, I decided to stick with this Christmas palette being most close to the @lettersparrow Holiday Hues palette. I already owned most of the colors in the collaboration palette but for those who don’t, I highly recommend ordering from Letter Sparrow!

(That’s a Christmas colored lap quilt in the background, sewn by my mother❣️)

which combo?

Lisa Spangler has a new collaboration with Letter Sparrow for a “Holiday Hues” palette of Christmas colors; I already own most of the Letter Sparrow colors included — all but the ruby red and pearl shimmer.

And Art Toolkit just released a bright red Demi Palette which I added to my collection. Just the color for a Christmas palette! But which combination do I go with? My pyrrol scarlet is close to ruby red and my grey of grey is sort of silvery. Or I can mix a ruby red color with quin. magenta and sunflower yellow, making room for a blue, which I would miss. Or skip the silver-like grey for both reds and a blue?

heading home

We are now on our way home, but I thought I’d post a sketch of my art tool bag: a Delfonics bag insert, size M, that I added a carrying strap to (I chose black so it would look more purse-like and hide dirt, forgetting how red-gold corgi hair would adhere to it!). Having much more room than my Art Toolkit, it holds plenty of supplies as well as regular “purse” stuff for longer trips. The cross-body strap holds tools where they can be easily grabbed even if I am standing up.

more sketching from camp

These bits of nature were sketched in blue pencil two days ago but I took my time at finishing them. We are doing quite a lot of walking and reading . . . 

And had a lovely visit with family yesterday when our son Jason and his family brought pizza to camp! 🍕 

a snail on the trail

During one of our many walks, I found this shell in the middle of a road where it could be run over. Peeking inside, I could see that it was still occupied so I took a couple of photos before moving it to the side of the road.

Brazos Bend State Park

Bill hooking up our RV — Brazos Bend State Park is a gorgeous bit of wooded swampland with an old wooden viewing tower, astrological observatory, lots of wild birds, venomous snakes (or so the signs warn), and alligators!

The older Live Oaks are magnificent!

This seems to be a mixed-marriage of a tree! Below are leaves from the left trunk, followed by those of the right. I’m not sure what types of trees they are.

a rice elevator

On another camping adventure — as we drove south, we were temporarily stopped by a train in Brookshire where I was able to snap a couple of photos of this interesting structure. Then drew it after setting up camp at Brazos Bend State Park.

random sketches

There really wasn’t any plan to these journal pages; they just sort of happened. We have been hearing a lot of water oak acorns falling on our tin roof, and sometimes the recent winds have even blown down small branches. So I sketched them, adding only raw umber and perylene green. Later, I tried drawing our tea and coffee mugs from a slightly overhead perspective — but only managed to make them appear short. The photos below show the actual handmade mugs, found years ago at The Spice Merchant in Wichita, KS. 

Grandma’s doll china

While we were in Kansas this past September, Bill’s brother David gave me an old wooden cupboard that had belonged to their grandmother. He said he didn’t know what she had kept in it.

I knew. David was only 5 years old when I first met their grandmother, whose home was as full of collectibles as a proper Victorian lady. And years ago she had given me these mismatched bits of dolls china — that she used to keep in the old cupboard. Now they are reunited, after all these years.

I also have a child-sized cast iron skillet and iron with wooden handle, both childhood toys of Grandma’s.

home again

While camping along Lake Conroe this past week, I ended up reading more than sketching. When we weren’t walking with Butters, that is. She is a very social corgi and there were new people and animals to meet!

I only managed to draw this tiny building just off of an intersection in Montgomery (seen on our way) and a couple of berry varieties found in the forest. 

this year’s oak leaves

This spread of autumn leaves was begun on Saturday — but with early-week appointments and getting ready for our camping trip, I didn’t finish it until today. Each of these is from a variety of oak tree on our property.

exploring . . .

We just arrived at our campsite on Lake Conroe. As Bill took care of the RV hookups, Butters and I headed down to our own private lake view . . . then climbed back up the live tree root steps. (It’s steeper than these photos show!)

83° (feels like a muggy 86°) with thunder in the distance.

when your subject leaves . . .

When your sketch victim subject gets called back for his appointment before you notice the color of his shirt, you make it whatever you want to.

I like the light, bright green against his ruddy brown skin.

I was at M.D. Anderson today just for routine follow-up tests, which show everything is great.

lavender’s uses

A few days ago, I posted a sketchbook page telling of a free tube of lavender watercolor that Amazon inadvertently sent me. Many sketchers commented on my Facebook and Instagram accounts with suggestions for how they use this lovely color. 

On this next journal page, I did a few quick thumbnail sketches to remind me of those suggestions.

elusive fog

This morning’s ephemeral early-morning fog laid thinly on the ground. Yesterday, it hovered in a narrow band about 15 feet in the air. I regret not having my phone with me yesterday to capture the above-ground variety. It was beautiful and mysterious.

sleepy morning

I tend to wake up very early, before dawn. My corgi, Butters, joined me on the loveseat yesterday morning but fell right back to sleep in this curly-Q position, as I read my book.

free lavender!

This time, a true Monochrome sketch . . . except for that pop of lavender.

I ordered a replacement tube of Nickel Azo Yellow from Amazon; they sent it in one of Daniel Smith’s 3-division boxes and by mistake it included a tube of lavender that I did not order. It’s too much bother for the company to have me return it.

So how do I use this color? It would’ve been good for the far distant Flint Hills of Kansas but we no longer live there.

seasonal color changes

Recently, Art Toolkit’s newsletter included a feature on creating a Monochromatic Palette with artist Jill Gustavis. Her palette inspired me to put together one of my own using some unused pans of paint. But with my love of color, I still managed to find a simple rainbow range in these “neutrals”! Then sketched an old salt & pepper set from Bill’s grandmother. Technically not monochrome since I used both brown and blue, but I love the subtlety of this palett’s combined colors!

My triple-whammy of flu, strep throat, and Covid is gone now, but I’m still a bit tired (or is it laziness?) — sketching palettes is undemanding. And it’s past time to switch to using my favorite autumn palette, full of earthy granulating watercolors. I should’ve chosen to sketch something that really shows the granulation off, but this wee mouse house was handy, on a shelf next to the salt & pepper set.

a moonrise

Last night our daughter caught this lovely site of the moon rising to the east of our wee barn-home.

Sierra’s new friends

When Sierra came here to live after showing in FFA shows and eventually at the Houston Rodeo & Livestock event, she was by herself. Except for a feral Siamese cat we named Egret for her habit of following the cow around her small pasture. Most cows in this area have white egrets hanging around them but none visited her.

Now her pasture has been opened up and she has joined four FFA goats and two female donkeys that rule them all. And Sierra absolutely loves her new “family”! Then, recently Michael discovered some egrets coming to call on Sierra.

books, books, and more books

Admittedly, I am a voracious reader. Always have been. These days, mostly ebooks checked out from a Houston library. The only “real” books on my shelves tend to be those that I intend to read over and over.

Normally I don’t care for books written by new authors about existing characters from previous authors. But “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” sounded intriguing (featuring a 1920s young lady apprenticed to the now retired Sherlock Holmes) so I put it on my library “hold” list. And waited and waited. Apparently, it’s a popular book series, much in demand.

Finally I was able to read the first book — and loved it. So I waited again for the next 2 books in the series. Being impatient, and realizing that I would enjoy reading these over again, I planned on buying them. . . . . “They want HOW MUCH for the ebooks?” 

Instead, I found the first 16 books of the series on eBay for less than half the cost of ebooks. 

The following week, I won a bid for these illustrated Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries that I also love to re-read. I’ve apparently become a book collector.

wild morning glories

I had to really work to get morning glories to grow when we lived in Kansas. Here, they grow wild like weeds! In fact, this year has been an exceptionally good year for them.

The washi-tape I used to tape off a frame for this sketch tore some of the paper when I removed it. Odd — it hadn’t done that before.

feeling better . . .

The Jelly Babies that made my sore throat feel better are gone — but so is my sore throat. All-in-all, this has been a pretty mild case of Covid, and meds took care of the strep throat and flu. Bill only had Covid, and he is doing much better as well.

And our Corgi, Butters? She happily insists on several games of fetch every day. She knows we need the sunshine, after all. 🌞 

(Because it is autumn, I used my palette of earthy, granulating pigments.)

one sketch for Inktober

In past years I have had fun joining online sketchers doing one ink drawing a day for the entire month of October. This year I am not participating, but I just refilled my Falcon fountain pen and drew this to celebrate Inktober anyway. My current viruses and strep throat are making me feel a bit foggy, so I added a Demi Palette full of “foggy” colors.

Then as an afterthought, I added some Jelly Babies. They are very soothing to my sore throat right now! Dr. Who #4 would approve.

The Art Toolkit in the second photo is my favorite, an in-between size that is no longer offered. It has my favorite color turquoise trim, and holds just enough supplies while still feeling small in my hands. The footstool is one that Bill made me years ago to go with the Morris chair he also made — Butters has claimed it as her jump-on-the-couch stool so I had to clean Corgi hair off before taking the photo.

Butters has now reclaimed her stool.

inconceivable !

Today I was told that what I thought was a sinus infection is Covid . . . plus the flu . . . plus strep throat. (“What, all three?”)

So I sketched about it in my sketchbook. 

I’m feeling very ridiculous at the moment. 🥴

(Drawn in continuous contour line using a ridiculously tiny turquoise fountain pen, then a bit of fluorescent watercolor added, in keeping with the silliness of it all.)

greeting cards

Closing my Etsy shop a couple of years ago left me with several small sketches just stored on a shelf. So I decided to turn some into greeting cards. (Has anyone else noticed the increasingly poor quality of commercial cards?)

It began with a sticker . . .

This week I am getting a new iPhone, so I ordered a new case. It came with some small stickers, one of which is a corgi camping; I had set up my green Demi Palette for using when camping in the forest and my corgi camps with us — so I added the sticker to the palette.

The forest color card folds out to show some of the mixes from these pigments. I also have an alternate color card should I wish to not include the mixing palette.

Then I remembered a small cactus sticker (I can’t remember where I got it) — and added it to my “Baby Cactus” Demi Palette. 

While I am personalizing palettes, I removed the paints from my Triad Pocket Palette, moving them to another pocket palette. Turquoise / Teal is my favorite color so I moved my most-used colors to this case. These are the colors of our part of Texas, influenced by Lisa Spangler’s Gulf Coast & Texas prairies choices from a few years ago. Originally I put it together as a Demi Palette; the larger size includes two new colors (Schmincke’s Shire Blue & Letter Sparrow’s Black Current) just for fun.

UPDATE: True to my normal habit, as soon as I posted this I made a change in the “Texas” palette! Potter’s Pink is not in Lisa Spangler’s original set that inspired this palette, but she includes an orange and a violet. Since Black Current is similar to Potter’s Pink, I removed the pink and added mini pans of orange and violet.