Instead of beginning my new journal with a sketch of one of my Pocket Palettes like I normally do, I just chose my top 18 colors. Which, looking at it this morning, makes me hungry for jelly beans! Gotta love candy colors! 😂
From the top, the colors are:
Potters pink (WN), quinacridone rose, quinacridone coral, nickel azo yellow, azo yellow, green apatite, jadeite, cobalt turquoise light (WN), cobalt turquoise, cerulean blue chromium, ultramarine blue (WN), indanthrone blue, monte amiata natural sienna, transparent red oxide, quinacridone burnt scarlet, burnt umber, buff titanium, and lunar black.
All from Daniel Smith except the 3 indicated from Winsor & Newton.
This is the last of my Khadi Papers Watercolour Sketchbook which I have been using since last April; the final page is partially glued to the end paper, making the last page a bit shorter. I used the back of the inside cover to test inks, try out watercolors, jot down doctor visits, etc.
I always look forward to beginning a new journal, but which one? The sketch is of a few ready-made sketchbooks waiting on my shelf. I think I’ll try the gray Tumuarta sketchbook — the paper is 140 lb. cold press which I miss working on, though the cover seems to be poorly made. I’ll soon find out . . .
Sometimes I want to use subtle, muted watercolors for a sketch. And other times, the sketch subject calls for bright colors. Instead of needing to change which Pocket Palette I grab, I put both muted and bright palettes in one.
UPDATE: After posting this, I removed the warm Volcano Red and added my favorite cool green, Jadeite genuine. I can easily mix a warm red by adding a yellow or gold to quin. rose, and jadeite is such a lovely bright green! I especially love jadeite mixed with ultramarine.
Potters pink is not bright on its own but is a great base for skin colors. And it makes the most wonderful grays when mixed with cobalt turquoise light!
Bill found these lovely mushrooms growing at the base of an old oak tree stump near our barn. I like how the upper one gracefully lays atop the other.
Yesterday in a video conference, Dr. Konishi confirmed that no cancer was found in the bits the tumor had touched. 97% of the original tumor was dead after chemo and radiation; he removed the rest with “a wide margin” as he phrased it — I am officially cancer-free!
Lately I’ve been wanting to work more in tiny sketchbooks but I’m still thinking out what tools and methods to try. I found a couple of Pentel Brush Sign Pens, extra fine, for only a few dollars at JetPens.com — unfortunately, I forgot to check and see if they are waterproof. They are not. 🙄
I drew my green mini sketchbook and the pens themselves using the pens plus watercolor in my regular sketchbook. Then on the opposite page, I drew all 3 of my mini sketchbooks using a Kuretake #13 refillable brush pen filled with Lexington Gray ink.
“IT’S SO EXHAUSTING BEING US!”
Bill caught Butters and Scottie Dubh taking a break from watching over me. Just before this shot, both had all four paws straight up in the air!
But we all know that it’s really Bardie Mac who is in charge. He usually has night duty, sleeping at my feet.
Even our daughter and son-in-law’s Great Pyrenees mix, Bradley, rushed over to check me out after I got home from the hospital — and he hasn’t quite forgiven me for bringing Butters to live here yet! Bradley takes his job very seriously, trying to keep all of us humans home where we belong.
At first he liked Butters. But he must have thought that she’d be temporary like the pups our granddaughter trains for Patriot Paws. When he realized she was staying, he became jealous. But I think he will eventually get over it.
It is so good to be home! I was unable to sketch at first with an IV on my right hand and blood oxygen monitor on my left, but eventually the IV was moved to my port. The above sketch was begun in pencil as I waited for pre-op nurses to prep me for surgery in the wee hours of Monday morning, and I later added ink and watercolor.
I wasn’t real motivated but I did manage to sketch some random things gathered on my bedside tray one morning after breakfast. I saved that muffin for last — it was very good! Except I had to pick out those walnuts that I love because they are not on my temporary diet. Later on I included a portion of the wall’s communication board to record those tasks I completed each day.
Surgery went very well, though the expected 7 hours turned into 11 hours. But the cancer is totally gone and the end is in sight. Reversing a colostomy is a slow 3 or 4 month process as a new temporary ileostomy was placed to allow the colo-rectal area to fully heal. Sometime in May or June, that will also be removed (eventually the chemo port will also be removed), and I will be done. There will be occasional tests to keep an eye on things for a few years but for me, as M. D. Anderson’s slogan says, cancer is history!
I implore anyone who finds my personal journaling of this past year to please take care of yourself! Get that colonoscopy test when advised to; don’t ignore it or put it off like I did.
In preparation for tomorrow’s surgery and for a few months following, my medical team has placed me on a low fiber diet. No raw fruits and vegetables, no nuts or seeds, no oatmeal or popcorn, no cruciferous vegetables, no legumes or beans. Mainly I can eat proteins (especially red meat), a few over-cooked vegetables with no peels or seeds, white bread, pasta, and rice. And my favorite foods are fresh fruits, salads, and nuts from our local farmers market! 😢
This is going to take some getting used to . . .
Meanwhile, I once again tried a white gel pen over watercolor to capture the diner’s table top. This time, it worked — same handmade paper as before in my recent “mending” sketch. I think the amount of sizing is the differential. The sizing is very uneven from one page to the next in this 100% cotton watercolor journal from Khadi.
Monday I head back to the hospital, this time for a surgical reversal of the colostomy that’s gotten me through cancer treatment. Drawing things in my journal helps me decide what to take for the expected 3 or 4 day stay.
Preferring to pack light, I’ll throw a robe and the above things in a backpack and call it done. The zip bag holds a few personal items and my sketchbook fits inside the large art toolkit. Plus a pencil, two Pigma Micron pens, and a waterbrush. After choosing some random watercolors, I decided that nickel azo yellow and quin. gold are too similar — one was switched to potters pink.
Facing major surgery and this is where my mind goes? Sure, why not? Sketching is a great way of coping. Now we’ll see how much I actually feel up to sketching!
Bill found the remains of this butterfly in his woodshop, so of course he brought it to me to sketch. It must have been trying to escape a recent freeze but possibly got caught by one of our barn cats.
After drawing the butterfly, I added a few of this year’s bumper crop of acorns. These are from a water oak and a live oak.
