One last October ink sketch, loosely following an example from the library book “Pen & Ink Techniques” by Frank Lohan — I drew the tree directly in ink, letting the pen move a bit intuitively across the page. But you can still see faint pencil lines under the text that I didn’t bother to erase.
. . . sketched without any pre-planning. Today I was busy baking a birthday cake for Bill (his birthday is tomorrow), and gave no thought to doing a daily ink sketch. Until remembering this evening that I still have 2 more days of this self-imposed challenge.
So I drew the first thing I saw.
My mother always made red velvet cake with an old-fashioned boiled milk frosting, also known as ermine frosting, so that’s how I used to do it. But Bill grew up with a cream cheese frosting, and now our daughter says that’s the correct topping for red velvet. So I did it their way.
My month of simple daily ink-only sketches is almost over, and I am ready to play with color again! Today, I was entering a deposit in my checkbook, took a look at the pen in my hand, and used it to draw my hand on the spur of the moment.
A few weeks ago we had our trees trimmed. Apparently a few small branches were left up in the live oaks — today’s high winds blew them down. I picked a few up to throw on th3 burn pile, but stopped to sketch this.
Part of the fun of post-cancer: regular CT scans to make sure it stays gone. With contrast dye. Which means a whole lot of drinking . . .
(Not complaining! I’m thankful to be healthy again!)
Today’s ink sketch was done from a photograph I took early last month when temperatures were still over 90°. This rescue horse living next door has a very white face; the fly mask is for protection from UV rays. The mask is no longer needed with our cooler days in the 70s, but the large horses have been moved away to a different area.
There was a wire fence separating my corgi and the horse but I chose to not draw it in. Whenever this particular horse saw her out in the pasture, he would run over just to be near her. He would calmly nibble the grass while she sniffed around. Maybe picking up on the gophers’ and moles’ gossip.
In our part of Texas, we don’t see much falling leaves in the autumn. Even many oak trees tend to hang on to their green leaves until springtime. But today a thunderstorm blew through with high winds, leaving broken leaf tips everywhere.
Today’s ink sketch, a very old wall from a photo I took in 2021 while on the hunt for bluebonnets. This wall was once part of the original campus of Baylor’s women’s college, located in Independence, Texas. Not sure I like how this sketch turned out but we have happy memories visiting the site.
The second photo shows a portion of the old college ruin that still stands on what is now called Academy Hill. Baylor University was founded in Independence in 1845; the men’s campus was located a bit further down the road on Windmill Hill.
These are some of the tiny sketches I have been doing this past week, using the muted autumn palette that I recently put together. Only one is worked from a scene that I actually saw: the foggy pasture in the upper left corner.
Today’s ink sketch of half of my Panini Caprese looks a bit weird. And I had eaten part of it before realizing they forgot to toast & press the sandwich! But the large pieces of fresh mozzarella, ripe tomato slices, and spring mix lettuce were just to tasty to complain.
We were in Brenham for Bill to have PT at the clinic, but we also walked a bit of the downtown area like we used to do when we lived just north of town, visiting a book store and one of the restaurants we used to eat at.
Bill once gave me a beautiful African violet plant which was very special to me. But when we moved from San Diego to Bremerton, then on to Portland, I had to fly (being 8 months pregnant at the time) — our things were moved up by friends. The plant probably would not have survived so I gave it to a neighbor.
This is another drawing exercise from a library book, “Pen & Ink Techniques” by Frank Lohan. I chose to add a bit of purple watercolor. Ink lines were drawn with a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen filled with Noodler’s green El Lawrence ink.
As I was taking care of household tasks, I wondered what I might draw in ink today. Then I spied the bottle of shampoo sitting on the shelf and I thought “why not?”
My hair’s post-chemo weirdness is gone now; it’s growing out at odd lengths but I’m thankful to have hair. A minor thing compared to being healthy again but it makes me happy. Still very dark though. At 71, I expected to be more gray but I take after my grandmother and her sister Lucille, who both also had dark hair until very old.
Today I was busy baking sourdough bread and cleaning these two palettes, so just a very quick ink sketch. I was liking the way it was turning out in black & white — until I added those stupid shadows. Oh, well . . . Tomorrow is another sketch.
My journal sketches usually reflect some part of my day, so why not this month’s ink drawing challenge as well? This page represents today’s frustration.
I’ve been trying to paint a watercolor landscape in my regular sketchbook, bound with Aches rough 100% cotton watercolor paper — the exact same paper as the artist whose demo I was following. A portion was to be masked out so I pulled out my small jar of masking fluid. It seemed a bit thick but went on the paper okay.
But after drying, I tried to remove it with fingers or soft eraser — it is thoroughly stuck! Some came off but many bits are stuck deeply. The last watercolor wash didn’t turn out well anyway, so I plan to start over. But on different paper and with a different brand of masking fluid.
Actually, this was my third cup — I had been up since 5:00 a.m. and it was still too dark to let the indoor pets out or feed the outside cats. So a good time to drink tea, read a book, or sketch . . . .
All day yesterday, the tree dudes worked on trimming our trees, especially the twelve live oaks that line our driveway. Since moving here on our daughter’s acreage, many trees have been lost due to various storms. This work by professional arborists will hopefully prevent losing more. They did have to remove one damaged white oak that was threatening K. & M.’s roof. But next, we order some new trees to replace the ones lost.
This morning Butters and I were walking back from picking up a delivered package when she pounced on this leaf. So I brought it inside to sketch. I’ve never really been taught how to render drawings in ink line only — I just make it up as I go.
