Four years ago I learned about making a triad pyramid rather than the usual color wheel. This is my attempt in a sketchbook using both a bright and an earthy triad — I love how jewel-like it turned out!
24 June 2024
23 June 2024
remembering Grandma in triads
20 June 2024
triad color play
Yesterday, Maria Coryell-Martin of Art Toolkit and Lisa Spangler, co-designer of the Triad Pocket Palette and Triad Template, did a live demo on YouTube. These first two pages from my sketchbook are what I did as I followed along.
The template is especially useful in exploring triads in general. This morning, I filled a third page with some of my favorite colors.
Before the new palette arrived, I painted a double color wheel just for fun, using a cool triad for the inner ring and a warm triad on the outer ring. Fun playtime!
19 June 2024
a Pocket Palette in TEAL!
Inside yesterday’s sketched box? Art Toolkit’s latest limited edition palette, of course. 😁 The deep teal Triad Palette has got to be the most beautiful palette in existence!! I sketched it using a “warm & cool” palette setup currently in my “Grow Untamed” palette because it has two types of turquoise paints. Today at noon Pacific time, Art Toolkit will be having a live demo with co-designer Lisa Spangler exploring the seasonal triad paints and Triad Template included with the new palette.
These are my favorite palettes. The brass colored “Travel & Sketch” folio holds a collection of paints specific to our central Texas location. The deep gold “Drawn to High Places” palette holds my favorite granulating pigments. I removed the handmade paints from the red “Grow Untamed” palette because they were too opaque — maybe I should think of them as gouache instead? In their place, this palette holds a selection of warm and cool pigments plus two neutrals. I filled the extra space with small pans of turquoise, buff titanium, and lunar black.
Another configuration I sometimes use in this red palette is to add a mixing tray that holds 3.2 mm colored pencil leads to fit in a Koh-I-Noor clutch pencil. I got this idea from #rothrockart on Instagram.
18 June 2024
it arrived early . . .
14 June 2024
rain or shine
Texas has had a very wet spring this year. My corgi, Butters, and I like taking early morning walks down the lane and I keep walking shoes on this knit mat, ready to slip on. And a pair of rubber boots for rainy weather when our grassy pastures become a soggy swampland.
The absorbent cotton yarn of this mat has some history to it. Years ago, I knit a small bathmat for a second bathroom but no longer needed it when we downsized to a small cabin. So when I adopted a new kitten, I unraveled the rug and crocheted a round cat cave for him. He loved playing and sleeping in it but eventually outgrew it. So when I needed a small mat to place wet shoes between the cupboard and back door, the cat cave was unraveled so I could knit this small mat. Mighty sturdy yarn!
I used one of my favorite pocket palettes for this sketch, a Drawn to High Places limited edition palette purchased empty several years ago from Art Toolkit. It holds my favorite granulating watercolors. Their earthiness seems to go well with the scene on the front.
09 June 2024
new succulents
This large container once held a small bay leaf with several years strong growth — until an unexpected cold snap killed it. This year we replaced the bay with three new succulents.
The gray pedestal was found in front of our barn, completely hidden by an overgrown lantana. Seemed like a good spot for this container when we replaced the lantana with prickly pear cactus.