just playing

Today I ate the last of these yummy vine-ripened little tomatoes . . . after a quick ink & wash sketch using my green Kaweco Liliput (with green ink!) and a Demi palette of Da Vinci watercolors.

Calmtober: oak

In just over three weeks, we will be camping underneath this Live Oak at Brazos Bend State Park — one of many gorgeous old oaks in the park. And yes, there are alligators among the abundant wildlife, though not usually near the campsites.

Calmtober: blackbird

Great Tailed Grackles gather in large numbers in our grocery store parking lot, strutting and hopping about like they own the place and are welcoming our visit.

I’m late getting today’s Calmtober sketch finished. We were on the road, returning from a short camping trip. This is an accordion-fold sketchbook, 1st and 2nd pages.

morning view, Lake Somerville

This is the view I woke up to yesterday morning, looking through a tiny window next to the bed in our RV. We are on a short camping trip, checking out the RV after it sat unused all summer. Texas summers are just too hot and humid to enjoy camping. Now that we know everything is running smoothly (and we remember those items we forgot that we needed to pack), we will be having longer adventures in the coming months.

This sketch is in my Traveler’s Notebook, passport size. The Demi palette I keep in the pocket holds watercolors from Marc Taro Holmes’ “Direct Watercolor” palette from Art Toolkit, 2018.

first & last pages, Calmtober

This week we are camping at a nearby lake, but I am also getting ready for Calmtober which begins on Thursday. 

I am using an A6 Hahnemuhle ZigZag book, both sides. This first page shows the palette I chose. Each leave shape is a variety of oak, several which grow on our property. We don’t see much color change in autumn in our part of Texas; some oaks even hold on to their leaves until spring.

For the last page, I copied Kriksis’ prompt list  to refer to, leaving space at the bottom in case I wish to add a note later.

When I decided to join this art challenge, I thought maybe I would try it in a new style. Maybe more like a children’s book illustration that tells a story? And maybe try using just watercolor & gouache? But what I am most comfortable with is ink & wash so I’m going to stick with that. Also, the subject matter in my regular sketchbook journals usually reflect bits of my everyday life, so this Calmtober sketchbook will as well.

For the curious, my palette was inspired by Deep Deep Light’s Autumn Forever set, put together by Kriksis. From the upper left, they are:

* my mix of quin. rose, yellow ochre, & transp. red oxide

*urban grey (Schmincke)

* zoisite

* my mix of burnt umber & raw umber

* lunar earth

* blue apatite

* my mix of shire grey (Schmincke) & lunar black

* raw umber violet

* yellow ochre (Winsor & Newton)

* buff titanium 

Unless stated, all watercolors are from Daniel Smith.

playing in ink

Here I was just drawing random things, using a brass Kaweco Sport fountain pen with a De Atramentis Document black cartridge, a gray brush pen, and a touch of watercolor. The old building (a stagecoach relay station from the 1800s) is built of a dark local stone, but I wish I had kept to lighter washes. I wrote on the page that it is located between Somerville and Caldwell, Texas, but I was remembering wrong — it’s actually between Caldwell and Milano.

my current sketchbooks

When I began keeping sketchbook journals (19 years ago! 🙀), I would normally work in only one sketchbook at a time. Sometimes, if the main book was larger, I might keep a smaller one in my purse for away-from-home drawing. Recently, that keeping to a single book at a time thing has become muddled up. I currently have FOUR sketchbooks!

In the photo above, #1 is my current all-purpose sketchbook — a Hahnemuhle 100% cotton A5 watercolor book. Fabulous paper! The pen pocket on the cover holds my heavy brass Kaweco Sport, the best fountain pen for controlling hand tremor.

#2 is actually the wallet that lives in my purse, a Traveler’s card size notebook, but it also has blank paper refills for drawing and a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen.

#3 is a regular Traveler’s Notebook, passport size. Hanging on the elastic band is a Field Mouse refillable fine liner pen from Tom’s Studio. Inside, there’s a zip pocket holding a Demi palette from Art Toolkit, a small travel brush, and folded tissue. The pen loop holds a small waterbrush. The paper refills are mostly watercolor paper, though one is Kraft paper.

And #4, the A6 Hahnemuhle ZigZag sketchbook I’m going to use for the Calmtober challenge during the month of October.

Calmtober, gathering supplies

It’s been several years since I followed one of the many art challenges that seem so prevalent online, especially around October. Inktober was one that I liked taking part in, but the pressure I placed on myself to keep up with the daily prompts kept me from fully enjoying it.

Then last winter I found out about Calmtober, hosted by UK illustrator and artist, Kriksis. Instead of 31 daily prompts, she lists 16 every-other-day prompts, which feels a lot less stressful. Today’s sketch is of the simplified sketch kit I’ve put together for Calmtober 2026.

These days, I am using waterbrushes instead of my favorite paint brushes. Our overly active kitten thought everything at my art table was fair game; all art tools have been placed out of reach for now. In addition, our incorrigible corgi found that she can squeeze through the cat door in the pet gate we installed to keep dogs out of the back room where cats are fed — food dishes are now on top of my art table. A water jar on a living room table is just waiting for a bouncy kitten running at top speed to knock it over! So my art space is “on hold” for a year or so. Eventually Luna will settle down into an adult cat, right?

The photo of the kit follows, including a pencil and a folio-sized bag from Art Toolkit to hold everything in. I added one of Kriksis’ stickers to the front of the sketchbook to remind me which is the front. It’s an accordion sketchbook and I’ll be working on both front and back, but it’s always good to know where to begin!

Kriksis can be found on Instagram, YouTube, and Patreon. Below is this year’s Calmtober prompt list.

just playing

When I was 6 years old, we lived on a farm in Illinois. The tiny farmhouse was on a hill; half-way down the hill was an old oak tree. I used to play tea party on a huge rock under that tree, using acorn caps for cups.

For this little painting, I was just playing around with Natasha Newton’s folk art style. She makes it look so easy but it is not at all easy for me.

late evening play

Yesterday evening I wanted to draw something. Didn’t care what, just wanted to draw. So I grabbed my two Lumos Duo pens and some colored pencils, and a photo of one of our succulent pots on my iPhone.

The pens hold gray, green, and peach colored inks. One of the tips is a fine liner and the other three tips are brush tips.

this week’s random sketches

Earlier this week, I painted all the small mushrooms I could see in our yard, directly in gouache. Then got lazy and didn’t even add the grass around them. Yesterday, I added someone I saw while waiting at the eye doctor’s for a routine exam. She was very intent on her book, pausing now and then to jot down notes.

pair of cardinals

Our Arizona cypress tree, planted about 5 years ago, is home to a myriad of birds of many species — Bill snapped a quick photo of a couple of our cardinals.

2 wooden bowls and an autumn treat

Our multi-talented son, Matt, made both of these bowls. The one on the left page was turned on a lathe after various pieces of wood were glued together. It holds our favorite autumn treat, peanuts & candy corn. I prefer the candy corn with a chocolate flavored top end but they are hard to find.

The bowl on the right page won’t hold much with that dip on the side, but isn’t the wood beautiful! It has an edge of rough bark.

tiny bit of crepe myrtle

Our crepe myrtle is constantly sending up small suckers during the growing season. Bill gave me this pruned off bit, saying it wasn’t the red roses he used to bring me but it’s pretty. I placed it in a small honey jar and it continued to bloom for days.

Before the barn-house we now live in, every house we bought had red roses growing in our yard or in a neighbor’s yard spilling over our fence. But here, the climate seems a bit too hot and humid to grow roses so we planted the red crepe myrtle instead.

I drew this with a Wren pen from Tom’s Studio, filled with a deep teal ink sample that came with it — forgetting that it isn’t waterproof. So color was added with Neocolor II crayons.

looking forward to Autumn

 Today I rode in the back seat of our son-in-law’s truck as he drove us to an appointment at the Med Center. My vision was still fuzzy from a bad (temporary) reaction to the iodine contrast used in yesterday’s CT scan, but I could still manage to paint these swatches. The medical stuff was just routine follow-up but Bill and I don’t drive the horrendous downtown Houston traffic.

(Text was added later after arriving home — my hands shake too much to write in a moving vehicle.)

I put this palette together for the Calmtober drawing challenge in October, hosted by an illustrator in Cornwall, UK who goes by the nickname Kriksis. She also chose the handmade watercolors in Deep Deep Light’s “Autumn Forever” palette (shown below), which I was trying to match with whatever I had on hand.

*️⃣ Instead of the burnt sienna, I wanted a muted warm red that leans towards a pinkish orange. After trying various mixes, I realize now that my Daniel Smith Quin. Coral would have been perfect. Oh, well! 🤷🏻‍♀️

our bird-watching kitten

One of Luna’s favorite spots is sitting on top of the cats’ scratching post (behind the chair) watching birds at the feeders in front. This is looking towards the front of our converted barn house; two windows and the French doors are where the barn door used to be. Bill made me the Morris chair and footstool years ago.

Inspiration for this drawing came from a wonderful new book I’m slowly reading through, “Pen Drawing, An Artist’s Guide to Drawing With Ink” by John Harrison. The second photo is from the e-book, part of a demonstration where John draws a chair in a similar position, though his background is a shelf full of lovely books. I decided to leave the line drawing in ink lines only, adding colored pencil to suggest the outside view. Luna is in watercolor.

Drawn with a Sailor Fude de Mannen bent nib fountain pen and Rohrer & Klingner Sketch Ink (color Jule).

waiting for haircuts

Our barber, Donna, was running behind yesterday so I did a quick sketch in my Traveler’s wallet with the first drawing tool I grabbed hold of. Totally forgot about my favorite Kaweco mini fountain pen that is attached to the wallet’s pocket (seen at far right).

domino cactus

The above sketch is how our small domino cactus looked on Saturday and the next photo shows how it looked the following day. Blooms are so exuberant but only last one day. I simplified the sketch by leaving out the small garden rocks and the shells imbedded on the pot. The last photo is of a sketch I did of the same plant earlier this year, with the beginning of a couple of blooms. Flowers repeat sporadically from spring to autumn.

early this morning

As a child, I was told “a watched pot never boils”. It actually _does_ boil . . . if you wait long enough. Seemed to take forever this morning as I was fixing a mug of my favorite tea, Taylor’s of Harrogate Spiced Christmas Leaf Tea. Currently no longer available; I hope it returns at Christmas time.

lost and found

Luna takes . . . and Luna gives back. Sort of.

Apparently our kitten stole this Lumos Duo pen from the bookshelf and chased it around in the middle of the night. Yesterday, we saw her trying to reach under the loveseat recliner — Bill lifted it and there was my pen, along with bits of pet hair and dust bunnies.

I saw a dragonfly perched on a wire fence and snapped a quick fuzzy photo. It was holding its wings strangely. It flew away as I stood there — as we came back from our walk, I noticed it had returned to the same spot.

a pen thief among us

Apparently, this blog post from last week never posted and stayed in the “draft” statis. Curious . . .

After baking a loaf of sourdough earlier this week, I drew a continuous line sketch using my black Lumos Duo pen from Tom’s Studio, currently filled with the non-waterproof ink that came with it. Today, I added a bit of watercolor and colored pencil, pleased to see that the ink doesn’t bleed much.

I just wish I knew where that pen _was_ at the moment. It was used yesterday morning, and is now missing. Our 4-month old kitten, Luna, has probably stolen the pen from whichever surface I laid it down on.

With Luna in the house, my art space has been streamlined: the various postcards, color charts and notes usually hanging on the wall over my desk have been put away for now, and my pencil / tool carousel is covered up when Luna is not napping. I have actually caught her lifting a colored pencil held between two paws and then dropping it to the stone floor to play!

The upper note in green ink was jotted down using a Wren pen, also from Tom’s, which I immediately smeared before the ink dried. Today is a messy day.

new palette colors

Recently I watched a YouTube video from Natasha Newton of her current favorite art supplies, including the “Elements” palette of handmade watercolors from A. Gallo. I love the combination of colors but (a) I prefer using Art Toolkit magnetic palettes and (b) I already own so many tubes of paint!

So I put together this Folio palette with paints I already have. Six of the pans of color, I created by mixing two tubes of paint directly in the pans using a toothpick to stir. I can see that I needed more green gold in the warm green, more shire blue in the cool green (jadeite is a very strong pigment), and some blue in the cooler gray. But they’ll be fun to play with as is.

The birds were seen on our front porch, at one of the feeders and perched on the arm of a rocking chair. There was only one titmouse; I drew him in two poses.

This is the page of notes I jotted down, listing the original A. Gallo pigments plus which of my existing colors came closest in color match.

Luna in pencil

I’m not very good at drawing cats in general, and Luna’s face is different than Maine Coons I’ve had in the past. Where they each had what is called a “sweet face”, hers is more of the wild lynx look. And her body, legs and tail are so very long!

The smaller line drawing was of Luna bird-watching out of one of our front windows. Bill designed them to be about 10” from the floor just for cats and dogs to have a great view.

a time to read

As with every summer since I was around six years old, my head has been stuck in a book. This sketchbook page was just a bit of playing with my Lumos Duo pens from Tom’s Studio: a fine liner tip in dark grey and brush tips in lightened grey, lightened El Lawrence green, and Peaches & Cream inks.

it’s about pear time

While recently walking in the south pasture with our Corgi, Butters, we noticed that the pears on the two pear trees are almost ripe. Soon we’ll be making pear butter and maybe some pear chutney.

I’ve always loved the mostly-ink Yorkshire landscapes of John Harrison’s, with a bit of watercolor in selected areas. I decided to try a similar style for this botanical, drawing with a Lumos pen from Tom’s Studio. The 0.5 fine liner tip is loaded with De Atramentis Document Grey ink, full strength, and the brush tip has the same ink thinned with De Atramentis Dilution liquid for shadows on the branches.

Luna’s toys

I had forgotten how truly rambunctious a tiny kitten can be. When not eating or sleeping, Luna plays. With her kitty toys, dog toys, coasters, window blinds, a shoe, a rock tracked in by the shoe, postcards hung above my art table, used paper towel, fountain pens, pencils, erasers, paint brushes, a small water container left out for sketching, the elastic band on my sketchbook . . .

Kitty-proofing is a thing.

a new companion for Scottie

Since our 9 yr. old cat Bardie MacRuadh died unexpectedly in May, his brother Scottie Dubh has been a bit lost. Needing lots of reassurance and extra petting, he has continued to cry at night. After a lot of thought back and forth, I decided to get him a new feline buddy. He just wasn’t built for life as an only-cat.

Today we brought home Luna, a 3-month old Maine Coon kitten. Wary of each other at first, Scottie discovered that with Luna came new toys! He now happily accepts having a new baby sister.

Butters is totally ignoring the kitten and Luna, having never been around dogs before, is being extremely cautious before getting too close. But I’ve had Maine Coons before — I am sure that her outgoing, accepting nature will eventually overcome any reservations re: The Dog.

June’s last sketch

This final sketch for the month of June began in pencil, loosely drawn as Bill drove me to a dentist appointment. Later, I drew ink lines using the Elegant Writer 1.3 mm pen in my new Sendak Nutshell kit. For the border, I used a 2.5 mm pen. I erased the pencil lines then used a damp brush, allowing the ink to bleed a bit, and added just a touch of watercolor.

I saw this cattle egret following one of our donkeys from the north pasture around to the one on the east — wherever she wandered, the egret hopped quickly behind, gobbling up bugs that rose from the disturbed grasses.

sometimes ya feel like a nut . . .

An early birthday present arrived this week: a second Sendak Nutshell from Peg & Awl. Why two?

My first one is loaded with watercolor, gouache, tiny colored pencil leads (and lead holder), a white pencil, an Inktense pencil in “bark”, masking pen, and a fine liner for tiny sketches. Plus some washy tape and a masking remover.

The new one is for monochromatic sketching, something I’d like to explore more: graphite pencil, a gray blue watercolor pencil, water-soluble graphite pencils, a fine liner, Elegant Writer pen, a brush pen, and a Demi palette holding only French ultramarine and burnt sienna watercolors. Plus sharpener, an extra eraser for the Blackwing pencil, and a bit of kneaded eraser.

I typically carry at least one fountain pen with me, attached to a small Traveler’s Notebook, so that would be included with either tool kit.

relaxing with watercolor

Yesterday evening I set out to pay a few bills online. I pulled up a recording of a recent Zoom painting session on Patreon hosted by Natasha Newton, planning on just listening in. But instead found myself grabbing masking tape, watercolors, and brushes and joining in with the participants.

The bills got paid later.

random sketches & a recipe

Here, I was testing gouache and Pitt Artist brush pens on the paper that came with my card-size Traveler’s Notebook. Gouache seems to do better than watercolor; the marks made with the pens seemed uneven as if resisting the paper.

I drew the ingredients for sourdough granola as it was baking in the oven. This is the primary thing I make with the discard after baking bread. Recipe follows, if anyone is interested.

(I’m a bit loose with measurements . . . as in, I don’t!)

SOURDOUGH DISCARD GRANOLA

8 Tbsp butter, melted and slightly browned

scant 1/2 cup discard

1/4 cup honey (I use real maple syrup instead)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

2 2/3 cup rolled oats

1 cup chopped nuts and coconut 

1 cup dried fruit

Brown butter in saucepan over med. heat a few minutes; let cool a bit.

Preheat oven 325°.

Mix butter, discard, honey, vanilla, and salt until completely mixed. Stir in oats, nuts, and coconut.

Spread on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes.

Turn with spatula, then bake 10 minutes more.

Let cool. Break up and stir in dried fruit.