just playin’

Today I made a mess of my desk and just played. Following along with Art Toolkit’s workshop, “Playing with Composition with Meagan Dew” (HERE), I made a bunch of thumbnail sketches from two photos of New York — and even added loose splashes of color to some of them. More than the rules of composition, I was learning to loosen up and let go of niggling the details.

a new favorite

A couple of weeks ago, when Bill was still in the hospital, our daughter and I headed across the highway to eat at Freebird’s, a Texas burrito restaurant. But instead of burritos, we ordered “walking tacos” which consists of Doritos or Tostitos corn chips topped with any burrito fillings of your choice: rices, beans, various proteins, grilled veggies, lettuce, guacamole, cheeses, and sauces — perhaps not the healthiest base for fancy nachos but I think it’s my new favorite “junk food”.

A recent article in our rural electric magazine told the history of Frito Chili Pie, the forerunner of the walking taco commonly served at football games. Fritos were originally sold here in Texas c. 1930s as an ingredient for casseroles and the company regularly published recipes, eventually one that consisted of Fritos, chili, cheese, and onions layered and baked in the oven.

wild sunflowers

With all that’s been going on with us in the past few weeks, our bird feeders have been sadly neglected — I found this rogue sunflower growing underneath one of the feeders.

So far, I have only used Neocolor II watercolor crayons in this small nature journal I made (Ink lines are done with a Pentel Pocketbrush pen). Today, I tried regular watercolor to see how a more watery color looks on the toned paper.

a wee visitor

Today’s tiny sketch is from a photo taken last week. As I climbed into bed, I noticed this bright orange lizard climbing the wall. Our cats, Bardie and Scottie, were busy chasing tiny gnats they could hardly see yet they were completely oblivious to this 4” lizard just a few feet away. I’m sure he was laughing at them.

Direct Watercolor tiny sketches

These are the tiny paintings I did while Bill was at the hospital — thank the Lord, he’s home now! Taking the correct antibiotics and healing from a successful back surgery.

These were done directly with watercolor (no pencil or pen) and a tiny waterbrush (Pentel Aquash mini waterbrush with the brush tip from the regular sized small) from photos on my phone. The sunrise was over our barn home last November; the bluebonnet pasture and lake shore from photos taken in April 2022.

a mini sketchkit

Due to an unknown low-grade fever, Bill is still in the hospital. He is walking well and feeling pretty good considering he just had major surgery. This delay is frustrating, but they don’t want to send him home just to have him return. I drive in each day, then home to deal with animals.

This morning before heading out, I threw together a kit for some tiny sketching while I wait with him. A zipper case holds tools, and the tiny clipboard from Bluestar Crafts (HERE) holds my pre-cut pieces of paper. More pieces of paper are taped to a plastic sheet from Travelers Company USA. I keep bits of skinny tape wrapped around a discarded plastic cap because it takes up less room than a washi tape roll. I usually do quick sketches with the clipboard, and tiny paintings with a border on the plastic sheet.

So while Bill snoozes, maybe I’ll do some sketching . . . 

this week’s “adventure”

I’ve been a bit too distracted to sketch this week — except for one very long wait in a hospital waiting room where I did the above sketch (loosely interpreted leaving out a lot of the details). My husband went through a 5-hour lower back surgery, then we waited 2 more hours. Apparently there was an issue with another patient in the recovery room so we had to wait until he was taken to a room. The surgery was successful, he’s doing extremely well, and will be coming home tomorrow.

simplifying

While my other Folio palette now holds a standard sized pan of every granulating watercolor I currently own (30 of them!), I reconfigured this Folio for simplification. Both of the large palettes live on my art desk. I decided to try this one with just a limited palette in double pans arranged around mixing pans — similarly to how I arrange mini pans in a Demi palette.

As much as I love unusual pigments, it would make an interesting challenge to stick to only 9 colors. Two of those I included are new to me: cobalt blue and moonglow. Just giving them a try for now. Normally I would have cerulean blue chromium instead of cobalt blue.

From the lower left working around, the paints are quinacridone rose, hansa yellow medium, green apatite, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, moonglow, monte amiata natural sienna, transparent red oxide, and burnt umber — all from Daniel Smith.

Here’s a look at my other Folio palette filled with granulating watercolors. I am not a paid representative for Art Toolkit, who makes these palettes — I just love their versatility and compactness! All sizes of pocket palettes can be found by clicking HERE.

more tiny sketches

A few tiny sketches, three of recent baking. The other one is a wall shelf Bill built me years ago that holds miscellaneous sketchbooks and papers ready to be filled — and my Irish tweed cap hanging on the top corner.

The peanut butter cookie is mom’s recipe, absolutely the best flavor! Just 1 cup natural peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Roll balls in sugar, cross with fork, and bake @ 350° for 12 minutes.

painting with Neocolor II crayons

Probably my final sketch of our granddaughter’s cow, Sierra — she goes to her new home tomorrow. Mikala raised the blue roan mix Short Horn during her senior year in high school and showed her at the Houston Livestock & Rodeo. Since then, she has lived on this wee farm with F.F.A. rescue goats and 2 rescue donkeys.

Recently we had some maintenance done on our RV by a man and his son, Jimmy, who owns a red-brown Short Horn and was immediately drawn to Sierra. He wants her to go with his other cow but also intends to breed her, something Mikala had always wanted for her but it just didn’t work out. So she is selling her to Jimmy. Sierra is very sociable and, though the goats and donkeys are companions, she gets excited when she hears other cows in the neighborhood. We all think she’ll be much happier with other cows and hopefully a calf or two of her own.

This is the second spread done in my little toned paper pocket sketchbook I made for doing nature studies. The first spread, seen in the last photo, is done from Art Toolkit’s workshop “Pollonators in Ink” (HERE) — worked in Pentel Pocketbrush pen and Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I have played with the crayons before, but never exclusively lifting color from them with a damp brush. Colors were even mixed in this way, touching the brush to 2 or 3 crayons before applying to paper.

(Those smudges are because I wrote the text with a fountain pen filled with water-soluble ink — then forgot that fact and laid my damp hand on the page.)

That’s our barn-house in the background, with 3 of the goats beyond Sierra.