Calmtober: costume

For the “costume” prompt, our granddaughter’s cat, Pumpkin, dressed as a human! A Maine Coon with very long easily-matted coat, he had to be shaved to get rid of painful mats. The sweatshirt kept him comfortable until a new coat grew in.

Pumpkin has been unwell for a long time; sadly, we recently learned that he has multiple cancers. The second photo shows him years ago with his buddy, Mocha, who died earlier this year. I took the photo of them watching Bradley, a Great Pyrenees mix, bonding with his new best friend, a 2 lb. kitten named Reeces. Reeces has grown considerably since then.

Calmtober: croissant

Not the best lighting for these photos — it’s been overcast or gently raining during our days here at Brazos Bend State Park. Which is normal for the wetland / bottom-land forest. We have enjoyed many peaceful walks and just relaxing under the trees.

My lines were a bit wonky here, and I added a color not in the set I’ve been using for Calmtober for my favorite Fiesta Ware.

Loving the handmade watercolors I see others using but wanting to stay with these magnetic Pocket Palettes, I put together a palette of my own from Letter Sparrow, one of the few makers of handmade watercolors offering them in metal pans. Two of the paints are from my regular stash.

Calmtober: thread

I drew these before leaving on our trip. It seems like there has always been various threads in my life, from the card-and-string toys I “sewed” as a toddler to sewing my own clothes as a teenager. Later, I sewed vintage-style teddy bears and spent years doing embroidery and cross-stitch. 

These days, the only sewing I enjoy is making my own sketchbooks. I don’t do that nearly often enough.

Calmtober: woodpecker

A permanent resident of the East Texas Piney Woods, Red-headed Woodpeckers have been declining over the past 40-50 years. Possibly because deforestation is pushing them out to the Oaks & Prairies region.

Last year quite a few of these acrobatic birds were regular visitors to our bird feeder; this year we’ve only had a few. They are quite comical hanging nearly upside down as they eat.

A day early, but we are busy getting ready for a camping trip.

Calmtober: sketchbook

I went for the obvious here — I drew my current sketchbooks. The middle one, for Calmtober, is really black but I wanted it to show against the larger one.

Calmtober: squash

We don’t eat much squash other than zucchini or summer squash. But Bill brought these home for me to sketch just for this challenge . . . then he plans to cook them for us. Since retiring, he enjoys doing most of the cooking and I take care of the baking.

Calmtober: windowsill

This is our kitten, Luna, doing a bit more bird watching from a bedroom window. The cedar chest was my grandmother’s; I store knitting and sewing supplies in it.

The heavy flannel plaids quilt is a favorite but it seldom gets cold enough in our part of Texas to use it. So I keep it folded as a cushion to sit on.

Bill made the window woodwork out of rough cedar as well; there’s a real difference between the newer cedar and the richly aged cedar of the chest which is over 100 years old.

switching my bag’s palette

For away-from-home sketching, I carry a Traveler’s card-size notebook (also using it as my wallet) with regular Midori paper refills. Eventually I’ll bind my own but first I’m using what came with it. Watercolor doesn’t work so well on this lightweight paper, so I’ve been carrying a Demi palette filled with gouache.

But recently I found Lauren Fairweather on Instagram, showing how she filled her Pocket Palette with Gansai Tambi (click on her name to see her video). These Japanese paints are like a cross between watercolor and gouache. So I dug out my set and gave it a try. Here, I swatched out a muted gouache palette, a bright mixing gouache palette, and the new palette. I think I prefer the Gansai for being both muted and bright.

I put together the Gansai set, one color at a time, to get the muted colors I prefer. The plastic case they are in was found on eBay years ago, with square pans of Gansai in it. Those have been either given away or stored away for now. I had to lightly sand the outer edge of the rectangular pans in order for them to fit but I love this case for painting at home. The lid opens flat and has several divisions for mixing washes.

Calmtober: horse

This horse lives on a corner property just down the lane. His distinctive dark markings on legs, dark mane and tail, remind me of a Siamese cat.

We are nearly surrounded by properties with horses, though we just have two donkeys and a few goats.

Calmtober: campfire

 

Knowing the upcoming prompt list, when we were camping in September I planned on taking photos of the campfire. Unfortunately, a burn ban was in effect so I made this sketch up.

The unknown vine with red flowers was really growing near the lake. Mature blossoms had this stalk thing emerging from the center. Leaves tended to curl up.

The rocky fire pit is the style at campsites across the lake; our campsite had this ugly steel fire pit.

Calmtober: crescent moon

For years we have enjoyed listening to this Barred Owl but had never been able to see it . . . until early Sunday morning when Bill saw it flying between two of our oak trees.

I painted the crescent moon from an online photo taken in Texas a few years ago; every time I tried to see a crescent moon these past two months, it was cloudy.

Calmtober: mug

Or two mugs, in our case. Years ago, I found these hand-thrown pottery mugs at the Spice Merchant in Wichita, KS. Bill drinks his coffee every morning and I drink my hot tea. I don’t like my mug used for coffee, which smells lovely but leaves a bitter taste in a mug even after washing. These mugs match, yet are visually different.

After doing a light pencil layout, I ended up totally ignoring the pencil lines and drawing this loosely and quickly in ink. Then adding watercolor just as loosely.

Calmtober: wheelbarrow

When either of us go outside, the only reason has to be to play ball with our corgi, right?

Below, a photo of the double spread combining the previous prompt with today’s.

Calmtober: moss

Our home was once a small pole barn. Yet even when it was a barn, there was a small cement porch in front. On either side of the porch were these two enormous rocks plus several lantana plants. After reconstructing the barn into a house and woodshop, we planted prickly pear cactus instead of the lantana, which had been trampled by the workers. The most beautiful green moss grows on portions of the big rocks.

The pencil ghosting is part of the next sketch prompt. These two sketches each share a bit of its neighboring sketch’s page in this accordion sketchbook.

Calmtober: drizzle

This was a challenging challenge! First, trying to capture photos of some of our late-migration hummingbirds. Then trying to indicate a light drizzle falling as they feed.

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.