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?)