updating my “forest” palette

We are finally breaking out the RV next week for a camping trip to Sam Houston National Forest. I pulled out my limited edition green Demi palette from Art Toolkit (turned into a camping palette with the addition of a camping corgi sticker).

But first I removed the mixing pan and added a few more colors. This palette is all about convenience greens, but it also gives me options for mixing skies, mist, bark, and earth.

From the lower left corner, the colors are:

Potter’s pink, quinacridone red, azo yellow, monte amiata natural sienna, green gold, green apatite, perylene green, glacier green, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, lavender, and transparent red oxide.

And that weird imprint on the lavender? I thought the freshly loaded pan was dry so I closed my toolkit loosely over the palette to keep the cats out of it. Oops! My Lamy pen’s clip made the indentation.

This is my former palette layout.

celebrating!

In May of 2023, I sketched this diagram to better understand the chemo port that had been embedded under my skin. Yesterday, 15 months after my final treatment, the port was finally removed! 🥳🎉 — I didn’t try to do any sketching with an IV in my dominant arm, but I’m celebrating nonetheless!

palette play

Lately I’ve been doing a lot more reading (with a hot cup of tea — it’s cold out there!) and less sketching, but I managed to play around with some palettes inspired by other artists. I even bought a few new colors to try out (especially when found in smaller sample-size 5ml tubes). If I already had a similar color, I made substitutions. This is one reason I love collecting Art Toolkit palettes so much — it’s easy to switch out the magnetized pans whenever I get a whim to try a different combination!

The first palette shown is inspired by Jill Gustavis (seen here). I love her idea of sky colors above, earthy colors below. My substitutes include cerulean blue chromium, potter’s pink, volcano red, quin. magenta, nickel azo yellow, and raw umber.

The next set from Robin Lee Carlson (find her work here) includes fuchsite genuine, a subtle green that intrigues me. I especially love Robin’s nature studies! I substituted quin. red.

The third set was found several years ago on The Animated Woman’s Instagram account, when she was sketching with a water-soluble Elegant Writer calligraphy pen. These colors compliment the colors that can be bled out with a damp brush. The colors look wintery to me, to go along with these colder-than-normal days.

while the soup cooks

A quick tiny sketch of yesterday’s tomato bisque simmering . . . I bought this 4 qt. Dutch oven for making sourdough bread, but it’s also busy making soup for these rainy, wintery days we’ve been having.

Once again, I wiped up the palette mess before remembering to take a photo.

yesterday’s sketch from McLane’s Children’s Hospital

Yesterday we spent some time with our grandson, Quen, who has Crohn’s disease. He went home from a recent surgery only to end up back in the hospital fighting an extra tough infection. I drew this mess of equipment, missing a tube or three, as Q snoozed. Easier than drawing him.

which ink color for Cream?

I am back to using my old favorites, Lamy fountain pens. They work better on the rough watercolor paper I filled this sketchbook with.

I love matching pens with the same color inks. These Lamy LX pens in Marron and Ruthenium are perfect for brown and gray inks. But my favorite Cream Lamy Safari pen, a gift from grandson Quen, has long puzzled me. What color ink? At first, I tried samples of pearlescent and shimmering inks from Goulet Pens — sort of reminds me of Quen’s personality. But when they began to stain the pen, I quickly flushed them out.

I drew the cream pen with J. Herbin Lie De The ink (a light brown ink) which is slightly water-soluble, giving sketches an antique look. Maybe that would be a good match?

I sometimes give my pens names. Our first Maine Coon cat was originally named Cream (his brother had been named Coffee) though we called him Kippy. Obviously, I call this fountain pen Cream.

early morning view

Recently I was sitting in the Morris chair early in the morning, looking out one half of our French doors. The striped patterns of the front pasture’s half-dormant grasses caught my eye, along with part of the Arizona cypress, so I snapped a photo (my iPhone was handy but my sketchbook was not) and later sketched what I saw.

I wanted to ink this in with the “sepia” ink I once mixed using brown and black De Atramentis Document inks — I filled two different fountain pens but neither would write. I usually fill ink converters while attached to the pens, dipping them directly into the ink bottle. But apparently the ink level was lower than I thought, and a bit sludgy. The lid must have been loose and some evaporation thickened what ink was left. I cleaned my pens thoroughly, threw away the ink dregs, and filled this Pilot Kakuno demonstrator pen with the “dark red / burnt sienna” mix instead.