having a cuppa

The weather is finally cooling and I am reaching for hot beverages more often throughout the day. Years ago, Australian artist Liz Steel told me how much better loose-leaf tea is than tea bags and I absolutely agree! She also introduced me to Taylor’s of Harrowgate, which is my favorite brand.

The white bone china mug with Scotties dancing on it was a gift once chosen by our granddaughter Mikala, who knew I love Scottish Terriers. I keep it just for cocoa, an instant blend that I mix up myself.

An extra benefit I’ve found to using the Pentel Milky White brush marker: you can paint over it! After loosely placing some tiny words on the tea tin label, I went over some of the white with metallic gold watercolor.

trying new things

This new sketchbook of mine is made up of Arches 140# rough watercolor paper, which I have never worked on before. The fine nib fountain pens that I usually use (Pilot Falcon and Kaweco Liliput fountain pens) don't work very well on this rough paper; neither do my fine-tip Gelly Roll white gel pens.

A new sketchbook with new-to-me rough paper, a few new colors never tried before in my emerald green folio palette (instead of my normal regular sized Pocket Palettes) . . . I might as well use new pens as well. Testing has shown that the Mahjohn Q1 bent nib eyedropper pen works well, as does Pentel's Pocketbrush and Milky Brush pens and my Wancher Puchico Mini with turquoise ink. Normally I use dagger travel brushes; I decided to switch to round brushes this time in large and small sizes. 

The quote is taken from a longer post of Belgium artist and architect Barbara Luel that I read on Sunday. She often draws her tools so I did some of mine after jotting down the partial quote. Her post included a gorgeous sketch of 6 delicately stacked tea cups -- beautiful!