trying something new

My previous sketch (of Egret, the cat) was an exercise in doing watercolor first, then ink — as presented in Mike Daikubara’s new book Color First, Ink Later. I have always been more of a pencil or ink sketcher, just adding watercolor to “color it in”. I love color; I just think more in terms of line.

So jumping in with watercolor first is a bit of a stretch for me. My normal style is also very controlled, so the “dripping” step is new for me. It worked somewhat on the sketch of Egret but my paint dried too quick to have anything left to drip on the above sketch of my tools.

In the book, Mike gives a list of his chosen tools; I gathered what I already owned and substituted where needed. I went ahead and used my Namiki Falcon fountain pen for the ink step above; for the cat sketch I used the felt tip brush pen. On some papers the fountain pen would tend to make much broader strokes than usual when used over watercolor, so the felt tip is probably the better choice.

My Pentel brush pen with “light black” ink (looks gray; can’t remember the precise name of it as I’ve had it a very long time) is a bit on the dark side. I’ve ordered some lighter gray pens like those Mike uses.

Overall, I think I’m going to love this color first, ink later method — as long as I can still use a little pencil first for my lines! It would be much better for capturing landscapes and forest scenes; I never know quite where to begin when drawing them in ink. And I love how watercolors mix together on paper, though I need to be sure I’m using more water than I usually do.

That older Pocket Palette behind my regular one has been set up with 2 sizes of large mixing pans and a bit of sponge in between them, for dabbing a brush on. I’d like to let colors mix more on the page (usually I pre-mix for exact colors) but these pans let me mix juicy amounts of washes.

Egret . . . and Sierra

I haven’t felt much like sketching the past week. Last Friday, our granddaughter’s sweet cow Sierra went into premature labor, ending with the stillbirth of a beautiful deep red calf.

Instead of drawing Sierra, I drew Egret yesterday. This feral Siamese has lived in Sierra’s cow shed since a feral rescue group brought her out to our farm to hunt rodents. Still mostly wild, she bonded with the cow, following her around just like the white birds who follow cattle in nearby pastures — hence her name. She helps control rats who get into the animals’ feed, sometimes leaving her victims for our inspection as we come to leave her a bit of cat food.

As Sierra struggled with contractions Egret kept a close eye on her, circling us and being very vocal (as only Siamese cats can be). She seemed to show deep concern for her friend but didn’t want to get too close to us humans. 

The following morning, as Sierra slowly walked over to a feed trough built between the 2 pastures, our 2 donkeys came over to share the fresh hay with her — in spite of high winds which the donkeys detest. As soon as Sierra left, they returned to their own shelter out of the wind but it seemed as if they shared Egret’s concern.

I love how Egret perches on fence posts, looking very much like the Aplomado Falcon that also hunts rodents in our pastures. There are plenty of rats, mice, gophers, and moles to share.

morning footwear

Just a random sketch of our mucking boots on the back patio — Bill made the 4-pronged wooden stand to put our boots on after taking them off. Stored upside down, there are no more surprise scorpions or lizards hiding inside. Or rain blown under the patio roof during windy, heavy rains.

scrapple . . . with an R

I drew this earlier this week -- then didn't get around to adding the watercolor until last night. Then thought I'd add as a header the word "scrapple" this morning.

Apparently it is too early in the day for spelling skills -- I forgot the R and had to squeeze it in.

After Bill and I got engaged, his family invited me for a visit to meet them (he was on his Navy ship in California; I was in Kansas). I stayed overnight with his father, step-mom, his three youngest siblings, and his grandparents.

That morning, his grandmother set this stuff on a plate before me and told me I'd need to learn to cook it because Billy loves it! I'd never heard of scrapple before. It's actually cornmeal mush with bits of ham in it, molded overnight then fried, and you eat it with butter and maple syrup. I wasn't so sure about it back then, but I love it now.

Our oldest son Jason asked me to make some for him and our granddaughter Jayna recently; it had been many years since we had made it! But his request made us want to make up some of our own. Yummy!

a beginning

Yesterday’s journal entry wasn’t much, but it’s a beginning.

I simplified my favorite 21 pigments (those in my larger Folio Palette) to this set of 15. The other 6 colors can be mixed with these; I just keep the others in the larger palette for convenience.

For those interested, these colors are:

quinacridone red

quinacridone gold

Hansa yellow medium

apatite green genuine

cerulean blue chromium 

ultramarine blue

indanthrone blue

raw sienna 

transparent red oxide

piemontite genuine

raw umber

buff titanium

titanium gray

lunar black

Jane’s Grey

All from Daniel Smith, most very transparent. Some may wonder why 2 whites and 2 blacks — I’m a bit fascinated by having one cool and one warm of each (especially interesting to play with on statuary or rocks) plus they are good mixers.

The paper in this Seawhite Travel Journal is 200gsm (94 lb.) and curled a bit in the corner with the wet watercolor. But it dried flat so I don’t think it will be an issue.

UPDATE: I tweaked this set a bit further by removing the cool white (titanium gray) and warm black (lunar black), increasing the buff titanium to a regular-sized pan. This gave me space to add mini pans of Potter's Pink and Cobalt Turquoise -- just because I love these two!

closing 2021, new sketchbook chosen

Last day of 2021, final sketch in this Stillman & Birn journal: a watercolor travel journal from Seawhite of Brighton. This brand is new to me, having heard about it from artist John Harrison. Though it is not my favorite 100% cotton watercolor paper, it is cold-press. I had this A5 (5.8 x 8.3”) and a smaller size sitting on my shelf, purchased last year from Amazon.

The actual journal is black but I thought I would leave part in ink only, as John does in most of his sketches. Oddly, no matter how much blue I added to the color band, it photographed more green than aqua.

our own canned pears

This past summer Bill canned the pears from our newly planted pear tree — 6 small jars in total! And we hadn’t expected any fruit the first year. I took a picture before he took 3 of them over to our daughter . . . then never got around to sketching them. Until today.

Only one more sketch and this journal will be filled (and only one more day of this unusual year). Maybe tomorrow I’ll choose a new sketchbook and draw it.

I found the quote on Instagram or Facebook last August and saved a screenshot of it. Another delayed bit that finally made it into my journal.

a confused tree

Trees around us are confused by the warmer-than-normal temperatures. Yesterday it reached 82° F. — a large magnolia tree nearby is covered with blooms! I drew a branch of an unknown tree in a drugstore parking lot with what I thought at first were flower buds but they turned out to be white berries. (the fountain pen had water-soluble ink, so I used watercolor pencils to add a bit of color — then forgot the colors would muddy if I touched it with a damp brush. 🥴)

earthy granulating pocket palette

Just in case anyone was curious as to what colors of watercolor I placed inside my latest Pocket Palette . . .

I left one of the large mixing pans in the palette (it came with 2 of these large mixing pans and 12 tiny mini-pans) and added 10 standard pans filled with my favorite granulating paints (filled from tubes). I bought this coppery gold palette because it was not silver or black like my others from Art Toolkit; I can easily tell at a glance which of my palettes is the granulating one.

Before posting this, I wanted to paint a simple landscape on the opposite page using this set of colors -- but I am so fed up with the paper in Stillman & Birn sketchbooks that I changed my mind. Not that the paper is bad -- it is wonderful paper for sketching in pencil and ink and a bit of watercolor for color. This is one of their Beta books which is heavier paper better suited for paint.

But I want to apply wet washes of watercolor and allow them to mingle on the page together -- paint just dries too quickly on this paper to do that. Also, the smooth finish does not show granulating pigments off to their best affect; for that, I need cold press or even rough watercolor paper.

Only a few pages left in this journal anyway; hopefully I will finish it by the end of the week, then start off the new year with a new sketchbook journal.

wee bits of Christmas

We had a very low-key type of Christmas, as Bill is under orders from his cardiologist to take it easy and not over-do. He’s been experiencing questionable symptoms; a new heart catheter showed the bypass grafts to be working great so it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of medications at this point. A work in progress . . .

Earlier, most of our kids and grandkids got together and had this crazy kind of gift exchange. Everyone took part, including all the grandkids. The gift theme was “big, fat, or hard to wrap” and each person may choose an unwrapped gift or steal one that’s already been opened by someone else. Hilarious fun! I ended up with this big bag of assorted gourmet popcorns and a stack of chocolates, a gift given by our youngest grandson.

The right side of this journal spread shows a few of my other toys. Our youngest son recommended the new computer mouse that Bill gave me — much easier with the tendinitis in my wrists. Technically the new iPhone is not a gift — my old one iPhone 7 needed a battery replaced and AT&T had a bunch of these iPhone 12 Minis that they wanted to get rid of . . . 

With gift money from my mother, I bought a replacement squirrel mop brush (my old one had the quill & wire wrapped ferrule and bristles were shedding) and the new “Drawn to High Places” Pocket Palette from Art Toolkit. I just got the case without the paints, to put a set of earthy granulating paints in it. Now it’s easy to see at a glance whether it’s my regular set or the earthy one.