granulating pigments

The pocket palette that I have been using recently (in the upper right corner) held 14 granulating watercolors. But I remembered that I had others that are listed as granulating, some more so than others. Many were remaining pans of colors I no longer have tubes for; that quinacridone gold is one of 2 pans I still have of the original discontinued formula. Others are from small sample tubes.

I wondered if they would all fit in one folio palette — and they pretty much do! I left out hematite genuine (I’m not too crazy about it), bronzite genuine (which has a bit of sparkle to it), and a couple of experimental pans I mixed myself of pigments used in the Schminke Super Granulating line of paints.

The cobalt blue is new to me. The guy that taught me about watercolor included it in his palette of 12 colors. At the time, I used Cotman student grade paints and I didn’t see much difference between cobalt and ultramarine. This week I bought a small tube from Daniel Smith just to give it another try.

I think I’ll keep these stored in the folio pan, removing only those I want to use in smaller palettes for various projects. 

This color chart was also an exercise in precision for me. For several years, I have experienced a slight uncontrollable shaking in my dominate right hand. Not all the time and not predictable. Later this month, I’ll be seeing a doctor to try and figure out what it is. But for today, slowly painting out these rectangles was a good practice in keeping my hand steady. Sometimes concentrating helps.

camping at Cagle

While we were camping at Cagle on the shore of Lake Conroe, I did manage to get a few sketches done after all. The large oak leaf was done directly with a brush and watercolor.

Most of the week, we had the Sweet Gum camp site all to ourselves. The heat and high humidity is probably to blame, but we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest.

packing essentials

Today we have been loading the RV for another week of camping, this time heading back to a site along the shore of Lake Conroe. I drew the art tools I planned to pack but it did not turn out as I had planned. Oh, well . . .

After gathering everything together, I thought “why carry both pocket palette and demi palette when all would fit in that empty folio palette?” So I temporarily moved all the paint into the folio for this trip.

Here’s a close up of the paints from the demi palette for those curious. This is what I currently carry in my bag for tiny sketches.

revisiting another old palette

In June 2018 I took part in Marc Taro Holmes’ 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge, filling this sketchbook with 30 watercolor-only sketches. I’m thinking of re-reading his book in the near future and maybe trying the same technique. At the time, I matched the Demi Palette that Art Toolkit put together for the challenge but I no longer have some of those colors. Instead, I put together the palette shown above. Instead of Perylene Maroon, I stirred a bit of raw umber and quinacridone red in a mini pan. Instead of Pyrrol Orange, I mixed quin. coral and nickel azo yellow. Then substituted a few other colors with those I had on hand.

The following photos are three of my favorites from 2018. Several sketches were removed from the sketchbook, the sketches either sold or given away.

after baking

This mess was on my kitchen counter after baking a loaf of sourdough, so I thought I’d sketch it. The initial layout had a very wonky perspective between countertop and brick backsplash — I decided keep it wonky. That’s a “breakfast bar” extending to the right, an easy surface to work the dough.

Drawn with a Kaweco Supra fountain pen, F nib, and De Atramentis Document Grey ink.

I bake my loaves in parchment paper because it makes transferring the proofed dough to the preheated loaf pan so much easier! I have a bread lame for scoring the top but kitchen shears work easier. The actual loaf of bread is in the wax-infused cloth bread bag — it keeps so much fresher this way!

a recently read book

Sometimes as I’m reading a book a line or two stick with me — so much that I jot them down to remember them. This recent book was a quick read but very good.

taking it easy

She smiles even in her sleep. But a much bigger, wider grin when it’s time to play ball.

recent sketches

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of things other than sketching. The root beer bottle was inked in early last week . . . then just sat on my desk unfinished. Reading, baking sourdough, taking care of animals, cooking meals more often (my husband usually cooks but he has serious back issues and is facing back surgery later this summer), swimming when it isn’t pouring rain (which lately seems to be daily), replacing a refrigerator that doesn’t want to play nicely anymore — in other words, “normal life” kept me from sketching.

The tiny wildflower was seen while walking my corgi. The silly hound dog, Molokai, belongs to our granddaughter. Both sketched without fussing the details.

The bottle opener next to the bottle was once ours. When our daughter set up her first apartment during college we gave it to her, saying we could always replace it. Then never did. I ran over to her house last week to borrow it.

revisiting an old palette

Recently I pulled out a sketchbook from 5 years ago, intrigued that I had actually stayed with the same limited palette and 2 ink colors throughout the entire book. I could not replicate the colors exactly, as I no longer have a couple of them, but I put together a similar palette for this muted color chart in my current sketchbook.

The thin sketchbook of 140 lb. 100% cotton watercolor paper was a dream to work on! I began it on my birthday; including turquoise was influenced by the turquoise elastic band that came with the book. If I remember right, I even stuck with exactly the supplies shown on the first page!

back to the pool

After over two years, I have finally got back in our swimming pool.

While undergoing treatment for cancer, my medical team didn’t want me in a pool because my immunity was so low. Besides, I had an ostomy at the time and wasn’t comfortable getting in a pool with it. After the cancer and ostomy were gone, I still had a chemo port for a time — probably not a problem, but the area was sensitive. Now I can get back to swimming (it’s really good, gentle exercise) but my legs are still weak. I wasn’t too sure I could step out of the pool by myself with no handrail.

But this past weekend, Bill and our son-in-law Michael installed a handrail. I spent some time in the pool yesterday evening and it felt wonderful!

The magnolia leaf? It floated past me in the water so I brought it inside to sketch.