first sketches

The past month, my desire to sketch has been sporadic at best. Even with the initial excitement of my new tiny Traveler’s card-sized notebook which I now use as an ID and credit card wallet. But today I finally finished the first two pages.

Three of these were sketched from photos on my iPad taken during a 2015 family camping trip on Mustang Island. The ghost crab (of which there were multitudes!) was drawn from an online source. I used watercolor, followed by a touch of pen. Even though this is not watercolor paper, it actually worked quite well. Gouache would probably work even better.

This Demi Palette holds my version of Marc Taro Holmes’ Direct Watercolor palette done in collaboration with Art Toolkit years ago. The brush I use most for these tiny sketches is an Ooku round #2 travel brush, and the pen is a Uniball Signo DX 0.28 in brown black. The larger brush is a Rosemary & Co R26 #4 round.

When I decided to use the pages of this tiny notebook for tiny sketches, I made a lightweight card stencil to draw in the tiny blocks. It is easily tucked in to the notebook’s kraft paper pocket, and can also be used for larger one-per-page blocks.

the sketching I didn’t do

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.

home for this week

One of the views we are waking up to this week, camping in the Bastrop forest . . . This immediate campsite was untouched by the devastating fires of 2011. The vast acreage that did burn is making a strong comeback.

camping at Cagle

This week we have been once again camping in the Sam Houston National Forest. Not too hot, not too cold — just right for leisurely walks on nearby trails. There are several items we forgot to pack or didn’t think we’d need and wish we had, but it’s been a relaxing, enjoyable time. Today, lots of new campers are coming in for the weekend just as we are getting ready to head home. Being retired means not needing to plan around working hours!

At the campsite next to ours, we found an arrow made of pine cones, leading up to a hidden painted rock that someone left as a surprise. I took a photo and left it for the next person to find.

an early morning view

The colors in the eastern sky yesterday morning were very subtle, but I somehow wish that I had emphasized them more in my sketch. This is from our campsite at Lake Somerville.

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.

yesterday’s musical interlude

Yesterday afternoon we drove to Needville for our youngest grandson’s piano recital — the boy is Way Talented, his fingers flying over the keys! A bit of classical, a couple of jazzy pieces, Amazing Grace, then a couple of just-fun pieces.

On the way there, I drew these two tiny sketches of Bill’s Dr. Pepper and my new purse. Just drawing what’s in front of me. My car’s passenger seat rides really smoothly, even on country roads, so drawing is easier than expected. This morning I added a bit of watercolor. (After painting the blue of my denim skirt, I left the purse lighter in color for contrast.)

A few weeks ago we were walking through downtown Fredericksburg when Bill caught a whiff of leather. He told me “let’s just go in here just to enjoy the smell!”While in high school, he liked to work with leather; later he gave me his tools when he joined the Navy. I crafted belts and purses during high school to earn some spending money.

But he ended up buying himself a cell phone holster and an ID wallet — then grabbing this soft leather bag for me. Nice souvenirs of our trip!

a Fredericksburg longhorn

One final sketch from our recent travels: we ended up by stayed at an RV park near Fredericksburg where three ginormous longhorns lived. This one was the prettiest of the three — but her left horn was heavier than the right, causing her to keep her head tilted. I wonder if it causes her a headache (or neck-ache) to carry such massive horns. It sure got in the way of scratching that itch!

a bit of gneiss

On the long drive into Inks Lake State Park we saw these beautiful “island” outcroppings of gneiss (pronounced “nice”) containing a variety of cacti, ferns, moss, and lichen. More bits of gneiss were throughout the park itself.

exploring Longhorn Cavern

While camping at Inks Lake, we drove to Longhorn Cavern State Park where we walked a bit over a mile over uneven paths, ducking in low spots as needed — a bit challenging for us in our 70s! But I do love caves and it was worth a few aches.

This cave was formed by an underwater river cutting through the limestone thousands of years ago. Ancient people used one of the then-open sky holes as a trap cave, hunting animals by driving them over the openings. Confederate soldiers put the large deposits of bat guano to use making gunpowder. Comanches hid a captive girl here until she was rescued by the Texas Rangers. In the 1920s, the cave was used as a nightclub with wooden dance floor.

Eventually the cave was filled with run-off rains, mud, and debris. From 1934 to 1942, the C.C.C. dug out the muck by hand, one wheelbarrow at a time, and fashioned stairs and walkways for visitors, the park road, buildings, and an observation tower in the National Park rustic style.

Our tour group was very small so early in the morning, allowing us more personal time and extra stories from the tour guide. The following photos were taken with an iPhone with no flash, so as not to disturb the tiny tri-colored bats we found.

During the tour, all of us adults took one look at the rock “dog” in my above sketch and decided the C.C.C. workers had carved it as a prank. Only the child in the group got it right, thinking it was a real rock. The workers found it in a different part of the cave, saw the dog shape, and decided to set it up where visitors could enjoy it.

Inks Lake State Park

Upon arriving at our campsite beside Inks Lake, a thunderstorm moved in — and our corgi, Butters, ducked under the dinette table. It didn’t last long but she didn’t trust going outside the next day or two; we had to do some heavy coaxing!

I just had to try sketching this gnarly honey mesquite! While big fat lizards, mockingbirds, a scrawny squirrel and Canada geese checked us out, some getting quite close. I wish now that I had not added watercolor to the tree bark. The ink lines were really textured using a fountain pen on rough paper! When I added watercolor, I painted it with the rainy gray skies that first greeted us.

That tiny sketch clipped to the opposite page was quickly drawn when the teeniest of campers pulled in to the campsite next to ours. It looked like an alien teardrop!

For those interested in geeking out on watercolor choices: for this trip I grabbed my granulating palette because the sketchbook pages are rough WC paper. But I can’t seem to mix paint in the right ratio to really let the textures play.

From the lower left, the paints are Potter’s Pink, Volcano Violet, Volcano Red, Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, Green Apatite, Jadeite genuine, Cobalt Turquoise, Shire Blue, Blue Apatite genuine, Lunar Violet, Buff Titanium, Lunar Earth, Volcano Brown, and Lunar Black. Most are from Daniel Smith; the Vocanos and Shire Blue are from Schminke.

a pause from traveling

Between Bastrop State Park and Inks Lake State Park, we booked a couple of nights at a small RV park — they have a laundry room in the office/cabin that we made full use of! And a dog run where Butters could run off-leash and play her favorite game, fetch. It’s extremely quiet here.

I did a quick sketch of this wee wagon that was outside the cabin. It didn’t move as much as the free-range chickens wandering around.

the CCC cabins

Today we left Bastrop State Park, heading toward Hill Country, but I’ve been finishing up one last sketch. I had planned on painting the stones and planks, but maybe I should leave it as an ink-only sketch?

Meanwhile, here are photos of some of the other CCC structures, including a blueprint I found online.