something new

Our grandson Quen had a busy summer traveling (as did his parents). While waiting at a German airport on the way to Israel, he saw this cream colored Lamy Safari fountain pen and asked if he could buy it for me. I usually match ink color to pen but this time I’m trying something different. 

I bought 4 samples of “shimmering” inks from Goulet Pens, more for the color-changing when writing text than for any metallic shine. My first try was using Lamy calligraphy nibs, both 1.1 and 1.5 — at first, I thought they didn’t like the textured paper of my Etchr sketchbook but now I think the particles in the ink clog the nibs too much. (The particles in the ink require pen nibs to be cleaned and flushed more often.) There is some shiny copper in the writing on the left page but not as much as when I switched to a regular “M” nib. The ink on the right page had no effects at all, no matter which nib was used.

BTW, photos do not capture the metallic bits of color but they are there in person. 

The ink on the left page is De Atramentis Cyan-Blue Copper. It’s nice but I’d really like to find some of their Cyan-Blue Bronze instead without having to pay over $20 from the UK. I have two more samples to try later on.

flying above me . . .

A few weeks ago we went with our daughter to Murdoch’s Backyard Pub for fish & chips. It was still around 100° so instead of eating on their back patio, we went into this small air conditioned building. I was halfway through my meal when I happened to lookup — and found a dragon looking down at me! So I took a few photos and sketched it later.

Murdoch’s is named for the owner’s beloved dog and they encourage customers to bring photos of their own dogs (and a few cats) to hang on the wall. They also set out food and shelters for local feral cats.

Our daughter’s church lost the lease on their building so now they meet out on the patio of Murdoch’s each Sunday morning. Usually the food is great but this time, not so much. Apparently no one told the two young cooks on duty that salted cod should be thoroughly rinsed before cooking.

new sketchbooks, old covers

When we were moving from our log cabin to the farm, I tore my remaining full sheets of art paper down to size for binding into sketchbooks to make them easier to move. That small stash of paper included one of my favorites, Nideggen paper, which is now no longer available. What I had was just enough to fill two small sketchbooks.

Obtaining these antique book covers was a fun adventure in itself! I saw several old books thrown in a recycle bin in Brenham — our granddaughter Jayna volunteered to do a bit of dumpster diving and rescued some for me. These two were printed in the late 1800s and seemed perfect for the paper. I finally got around to sewing the folios and gluing the resulting book block and end papers in place this week. I use two of Bill’s great-grandmother’s sad irons as weights when binding sketchbooks. The blue glue stick with silicon bristles came with one of Bill’s woodworking orders — works great for spreading thin glue!

The dark green one is embossed with the title “Learn to do Practical Word-Book by Doing” — perhaps an old student copy book? The other one, “The Practical Speller, Second Book”, was specifically a Texas school text book; the retail price is printed on the cover as 15 cents, with the exchange price 8 cents.

playing with an old friend

Just for fun, I drug out my old Whiskey Sketchers Private Stock palette a few days ago — I don’t think this one is available anymore. I haven’t used it for many years, yet just a fine spritz of water and the colors came alive! It’s filled with Daniel Smith tube watercolors.

I was trying for looser shadows and splashes in this sketch but it still seems a bit tight to me. I need more practice!

recent reading

I read a lot. Often I am still “inside” the book’s story when I’ve come to the end of the words — so I sketch it in my journal or jot down a quote from the book, remembering.

Susanna Kearsley novels have long been favorites of mine, especially  “The Winter Sea”. This latest book, along with “The Firebird”, are related to the same characters and historical period as “The Winter Sea”. I struggled to get into the story of “The Vanished Days”; it seemed to drag on a bit. But eventually I was hooked — the surprise reveal near the end was unexpected and made a great story!

new sketchbook

As usual, I began this new journal with a quote and some form of art supplies — this time, simple swatches of all 22 watercolors that I use. I’m going smaller than my normal size as well, with the A6 size Etchr Sketchbook (4.1 x 5.8”) with 230 gsm 100% cotton cold press paper. I love this brand but they can be a bit pricey.

The cover is a white rough-weave cotton. Made to be customizable but I never know quite what to do with it. So it mostly just gets a bit dirty by the time I fill the pages. Any suggestions on what to do with the cover out there? 

speaking piffle

When I purchased those Dorothy Sayers Mysteries DVDs earlier this year, it was decided that we would save them to take on our next camping trip (set for the end of September). But that sprained knee of mine turned out to be a partially dislocated kneecap — it popped back into place on its own but it needs to be kept elevated, iced, and wrapped with a compression bandage.

So I went ahead and watched the videos. And practiced sketching faces. These don’t in any way look like Edward Petherbridge or Harriet Walter, but it gave me an excuse to jot down a few quotes. My favorite is Harriet’s reply to Peter after one of his many marriage proposals to her: “If anyone ever marries you, it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle!”

This is also the end of my Seawhite Travel Journal, begun in January. Here are the inside front and back pages where I tend to gather quotes.

a spot of tea

This is the only real tea cup & saucer I own, a 45th wedding anniversary gift from our Bed & Breakfast hostess. I usually drink tea from large mugs.

But I am a bit particular regarding loose-leaf vs tea bags, as well as brand. I prefer loose-leaf and Taylor’s of Harrogate from Yorkshire, England is fabulous! The teas sketched are Yorkshire Gold (black tea blend), Taylor’s Earl Grey, Taylor’s Imperial Gunpowder (green tea), Republic of Tea Double Dark Chocolate (yerba mate tea), Justea Purple Chocolate (purple tea), and some leftover mint and lemon tea bags.

I started with an ink sketch, then added shadows using a 25% / 75% watered down ink in a waterbrush — Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink.

I got this far, then thought something was missing. So I added a vignette touch of our gray stone tile countertop. Then thought I’d better stop messing with it.

4 1/2 goats

Our rescue goats are quite happy living their lives as silly, spoiled goats.

Then there is Egret. She is a feral Siamese cat who lives with our cow, Sierra, and has been known to follow Sierra around the pasture in the manner of the white egrets that hang out with nearby herds of cattle. That’s how she got her name.

But lately she has also been following the goats around like a lost puppy looking for its mama! Our son-in-law Michael took these photos, posting them on Facebook as his “4 1/2 goats”.

trying something new

This past January, while exploring Mike Daikubara’s Color First, Ink Later, I briefly gave 3 shades of gray Tomball markers a try. Following Mike’s technique, the grays, along with white gel pen, are added at the end to enhance the sketch with shadows and highlights. This works fine as long as you don’t want to add any more watercolor — the Tomball markers bleed if touched with a wet brush.

While I now love doing splashy washes of watercolor before ink drawings (when I have time — this technique takes more time than a quick ink sketch followed by watercolor), I found the added step of using markers for shadows a bit tedious.

Then fellow Texas sketcher “unhyphenatedanarchy” (on Instagram) suggested using a diluted mix of Lexington Gray ink and distilled water in an extra waterbrush. He was sharing with me ways to sketch people more quickly; I have heard of other sketchers doing the same but had never tried it myself.

What a great way to add those shadows to an ink sketch BEFORE adding watercolor! The ink washes, which can be built up in layers for darker tones, will not blur when watercolor is added. Great for sketching outdoors when you want to catch that shadow before it moves (I tend to sketch slowly and the sun doesn’t wait for me). And the ink wash goes down much smoother on the page than when using markers.