Bluebonnets get the most attention of the vast variety of Texas wildflowers, but my personal favorite is the Prickly Poppy. It begins blooming in mid spring and lasts through late summer’s heat, a bright pop of white in the green pastures and along roadsides. I drew these from a photo taken at our campsite in Bastrop State Park. I especially liked how the flowers looked next to the Bastrop ironstone.
State Farm acted quickly after our car wreck two weeks ago. We received our claim payoff and yesterday we were able to buy another Trax, this time in a new color called “cypress gray” — in some light it looks dark earthy green and some light it looks gray. Once we add a tow package, we can get back to camping adventures.
I planned to do lots of sketching during our week at Bastrop State Park. But there was plenty of time so first I finished these first pages of my new sketchbook, an A5 100% cotton watercolor book from Hahnemuhle. The mushrooms were from our back yard; the two front ones are a different variety of inkcap than the one previously sketched — these are smooth rather than shaggy. I also did a lot of reading under the beautiful trees and a bit of knitting.
Then our week was changed drastically. We tow a small car behind the RV on longer trips. Tuesday we drove into Bastrop for lunch at Maxine’s (I had a great fried green tomato BLT!). Then headed to H-E-B for a few items. But we had an accident instead. Both of us are fine, though pretty beaten up by airbags and extremely sore. As I told the ER nurse, I guess that hike we were planning to take is cancelled. The car was totaled. After making arrangements and dealing with accident reports, we decided to head home early.
We had managed to get several walks in, enjoying the campsite’s peaceful beauty. There was a CCC shelter with three separate areas, each with its own fireplace; like all the CCC structures in the park, it was designed to fit its specific location using river rock and planking harvested from the park itself as the park was built.
These pages have been experimental, trying various methods of using watercolor and colored pencils. The background of the pigeon didn’t contrast enough so I added colored pencil. That still didn’t work, so I tried another wash of watercolor over the pencil — major failure! Giving up and moving on . . .
The quotes were jotted down after drawing the heron in colored pencil. Bill and I have been reading the Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries by Louise Penny.
Today is Thanksgiving day and things are mostly ready. While waiting for family to arrive, I did a quick sketch of a leaf picked up while walking with Butters. The quote from a Winnie the Pooh book popped up in an email from Peg & Awl.
Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving, everyone!
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.
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.
Oh, and that tiny mini pan of paint added to my folio palette, sitting in the mixing pan? It’s a smidgen of Schmincke Volcano Violet. I was trying to match the colors of 3 Fiestaware dishes in the dish drainer: turquoise, a soft yellow, and heather. I had cobalt turquoise light and Naples yellow in the palette already, but the volcano violet was the closest I could come to the muted reddish-purple heather. An interesting triad that I may play around with sometime.
About the only bread we eat is sourdough from H-E-B’s bakery because it doesn’t give me heartburn. But I’ve been curious about making my own. Years ago when we lived in Kansas I tried to get a starter going but it died — Bill thinks the fluoride in the water was the problem. Now we have well water with no chlorine and I think it would work, but I was advised to use bottled water at first.
I recently bought some “very active” starter on Etsy. It has taken several daily feedings to recover from being lost a few extra days in the mail system, but it looks like it’s now ready to try making some bread. The sourdough starter in the sketch is right after removing the “discard” and mixing in new flour and water; afterwards it just about doubled its volume from what is shown.
I sketched this with an Elegant Writer, using a wet paintbrush to tease out some washes from the water-soluble ink. That round thing in the center is a scale to weigh the added flour and water. The funky thing in front is a Danish dough whisk. The lined basket is for proofing the loaf before baking.
This new sketchbook of mine is made up of Arches 140# rough watercolor paper, which I have never worked on before. The fine nib fountain pens that I usually use (Pilot Falcon and Kaweco Liliput fountain pens) don't work very well on this rough paper; neither do my fine-tip Gelly Roll white gel pens.
A new sketchbook with new-to-me rough paper, a few new colors never tried before in my emerald green folio palette (instead of my normal regular sized Pocket Palettes) . . . I might as well use new pens as well. Testing has shown that the Mahjohn Q1 bent nib eyedropper pen works well, as does Pentel's Pocketbrush and Milky Brush pens and my Wancher Puchico Mini with turquoise ink. Normally I use dagger travel brushes; I decided to switch to round brushes this time in large and small sizes.
The quote is taken from a longer post of Belgium artist and architect Barbara Luel that I read on Sunday. She often draws her tools so I did some of mine after jotting down the partial quote. Her post included a gorgeous sketch of 6 delicately stacked tea cups -- beautiful!
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