cat post

When the subject is mundane, an orange/red color flow brightens it right up. I'm all about making the subject colorful.

On Hand Book Artist paper.

hiking around the pond

This piece was transformed (in my mind anyway) from a random color experiment to a landscape-like scene with the mere addition of a humanoid. What power a few strokes have.

W/c on 140# Arches paper.

idle hand

But the right one is busy. This time with Noodler's ink added to a half-filled waterbrush.

I'm pleased at how the medium flowed and yet did dry-brush, too.

No pre-drawing, on Strathmore drawing paper.

why we're the Granite State

We have chunks of granite *everywhere*--rising through the ground continually, always needing to be piled up somewhere for storage.

This is a section of the jumbled rock wall that borders our yard. Lots of chipmunks live there.

Tech pen on Strathmore drawing paper.

lazy, floating flower

I'm trying out Winsor & Newton oil bars, sticks of oil paint. I've never worked with oils before--setting up, then cleaning the brushes is such a pain for my hit-and-run style of drawing.

These sticks are a way to focus on drawing with oils in the simplest way. I'm impatient with the long drying time, though.

I filled the center of the flower digitally, picking up colors from the background. Too flat and bland, a strange mix with the liveliness of the blue and yellow.

On bristol board.

coming forward

Listening to the League of Women Voters discuss their choices in Pennsylvania, I started doodling with charcoal and these women emerged on the page.

Then painted, on Handbook Artist paper.

fire and bubbles

More inking with comb and bottle cap. There may be a phoenix in that fire shape.

Noodler's ink on Strathmore drawing paper.

brightening the scene

Another piece from my dipped bottle cap and comb, then I decided it needed color. This is a soluble Noodler's, so I was careful to not let it dissolve much.

On Handbook Artist paper.

caps and comb teeth

I dipped a big bottle cap and a coarse-toothed comb in Noodler's Nile Ebony ink. After that, I lost control.

The solid black circles are from where a skim of ink stayed stretched over the bottle cap just as I stamped it down. Catching a bubble in the moment of its break!

On Strathmore drawing paper.

imagining cliffs

Cliffs are an underlying theme in the news--as in, we seem to be falling off--or--the problems facing us.

Or are these just the 4 am worries on a full moon night?

W/c on Handbook Artist paper.

sandal weather

Two weeks ago I was using the woodstove to keep warm; yesterday it was warm enough to wear shorts and sandals, and draw one.

I guided a friend through the first steps of "how to draw." One of our exercises was drawing a sandal profile--commemoration of the exciting warmth, because I wear socks any time it's under 70.

Tech pen and w/c on Strathmore Windpower recycled drawing paper, which takes fluid quite well.

bell and drum

This is a stretched paper drum made of linen rag. You'd never guess it's not a skin; the drum has a great sound. It's painted, much better than this impression of it.

The bell is the one we use to call people to dinner.

W/c on Handbook Artist paper.

looking up

Drawing in bed, looking up at the shelf beside me.

Black w/c pencil and water on Cachet paper.

mapping the imagination

Now I see a river, islands, sand banks, and small circuits of grass. This abstract map emerged on the page while I was listening to NPR's The World.

W/c on Handbook Artist paper.

another close model

I almost always
wear the same
kind of socks.
Cushy black Thorlos.

W/c and fountain pen
for ribbing on
Handbook artist paper.

like planting rows of color

I like to dip the brush in a new color and just slide it, rolling and smearing in varying widths to see what comes out. I'm using nylon waterbrushes, not the good ones.

W/c on Handbook Artist paper.

new faucets

I found a conte pencil--haven't drawn with those in years. So here's one of the new faucets looming over the new sink in the new countertop. The bathroom renovation is nearing completion.

Lots of painting left to do, on walls, not in the sketchbook.

Conte (please forgive the missing accent, the code "alt 0233" isn't working for me in Blogger) and w/c on Handbook Artist paper.

the power, the peace, the practice

In any moment you can focus on the sensation of your breath and feel the peace that lives beneath all the mania that the mind creates.

Check out Eckhardt Tolle's books, especially The Power of Now and A New Earth. They're the non-religious, non-dogmatic explanation of this practice.

W/c and Noodler's Ink on Handbook artist paper.

restaurant wraps

The fabric/cutlery kind of wrap, not an edible one. I take this as a good sign in a restaurant. Better than plastic forks and tissue-thin wisps, anyway.

Fountain pen and w/c on 90# paper. Drawn in the restaurant, colored later.

pillowed wicker

It's always a challenge to get that back curve and the sides somewhat right. Not that I did.

W/c on Raffine.

playing my own tune

Idle improvisation with paint and a brush turned into instruments of a sort. Don't look for accuracy, my left brain doesn't know the details of instrument construction.

W/c on Raffine paper, then some digital color-dropping in the middle that didn't work.

Tombow markers

This isn't much of a drawing, but the experiment was in the coloring. I wet the paper, then used the green Tombow marker for painting. Worked better than I expected.

In the Handbook Artist Journal. This paper is very like the w/c Moleskine paper, but in a portrait format.

with dinner

Water (tea added) and wine, the ancient beverages.

Fountain pen (Noodler's ink) and w/c on 140# paper, drawn in the restaurant, colored at home.

beads on a gourd

I don't know what this is called,maybe a "shaker" but not the religious group that made great pegs, boxes, and chairs. This shaker sounds cool with drums.

Tech pen and w/c in the Handbook Artist Journal.

random masks

Playing with a marker in the Paperblanks Traveller notebook.

Friday's snow

Watching it fall.

Tech pen on Canson sketch paper.

his favorite spot

A much bigger scene than I usually do. I grabbed a blue ballpoint to catch the cat from the top view and ended up filling the double-page, then painting it all.

I never know where the first line will take me. I love that!

In a 5 x 8 Hand Book Artist's Journal. I love the paper, even a sharpie doesn't penetrate to ruin the other side, yet it doesn't feel super thick and has a nice tooth.

alternative globe

Playing with shape and color. Maybe it's a mandala.

Canson sketchpaper.

top view

Chaucer does have that splotch of white on the side of his neck. For once *some* of my colors simulate reality. But the sofa isn't purple.

Playing with an iridescent watercolor, mixed with a regular purple w/c. Weird sparkly effect, but it doesn't show in the scan.

Tech pen and w/c on Canson sketchpaper.

after the salad

It's a popular thing among visual journalers to draw a meal before they eat, but this is the "back view."

Tech pen and w/c on Canson sketch paper.

April 1st! Ulike yesterday and Friday and oh, so many days, it's not snowing! It's actually (whisper) warmish!