table jumble

Continuing to practice what I learned from Andrea Joseph's videos in Sketchbook Skool.

On Rhodia paper with the teeny dots--so smooth, and a Papermate Profile ballpoint pen that doesn't blob at all.

iron pots

I went to Old Sturbridge Village for the Wool Festival. These were the iron pots boiling sage leaves in preparation for dying wool.

A hot day and a smoky wood fire make drawing more challenging.

Gray fibertip.

out in the cold

The shed where we normally put the teak bench and chair have been filled up with other stuff. So these are weathering the winter with the snow piles.

Gray marker and w/c in the journal.

filling the bags

Filling lots of tote bags with food and art supplies to take to Jan's cottage. I had to stop and draw the colorful mix.

Prismacolor ArtStix in the journal.

the chef in the kitchen

Tracy cooked me a wonderful dinner for my birthday. The highlight was the yummy, crispy corn fritters from a Cooks Illustrated recipe. My new favorite taste treat.

Fibertip in a Cachet sketchbook. I took out their metal spiral and made a thinner travel sketchbook with my own plastic coils. Split (none needed in the center) to lighten the weight.

sitting on the porch

This porch is on a restaurant. I had eaten, come outside, and couldn't resist capturing a bit of the view.

I pasted it in the journal, then added the orange paint as a bright spot.

Pen and w/c.

Pentel Colorbrush

Of the small variety of *real* brush-tip markers (not foam), the Pentel ink tips are just ok, with a poor flow.

They have relatively large brush tips and in spite of gentle squeezing or dipping into water, the tip goes quickly back to a dry brush effect. Handy only if you want that for all strokes.

The ink is watersoluble, so painting over it is impossible. But for this quick rendition of a woodpile, it worked well enough to document the scene.

basement stacks

I'm not a packrat, but there are things worth storing. I stood in the basement and did a quick sketch of the main storage section.

Picnic basket, laundry baskets, cat crates, and under the orange drape, an air conditioner we haven't used in years, given the relatively cool NH summers.

Colors are not accurate! But more fun this way. Why *don't* they make cardboard boxes in blue?

Pencil and w/c in the journal.

waiting for my soup

There's a local restaurant that has great hot and sour soup (not sour at all, in a good way). The takeout window is in a little alcove, before the door to the table area.

With a bench, perfect for sketching.

In a 4x6 sketchbook, micron pen.

still in Red Rock Canyon

More of the desert colors and textures from a simple drive through the hills.

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

20 minutes outside Las Vegas is a circular drive through Red Rock Canyon. In August I took this photo of the vista from the wayside stopping point that is at the highest point.



This is the path back from another viewing stop on the drive, where a stream occasionally flows through the canyon.

I love the subtle, ever changing desert colors much more than the repetitive shouting electric colors of the Strip.

grab the cat

Chaucer is an indoor cat who runs back from an open door, but he loves to look outside. Especially if the neighbor cat is out there on our patio.

I ran for my journal to draw him standing on his back legs, stretched out tall, tail swishing. Of course that pose was over by the time I got back. So I did a quick sketch of the sitting pose and added cabinetry.

Life drawing is all around me.

Fountain pen on lined journal paper.

perspective challenge

I had an interval of huge patience and attempted the angles of this library view.

Smudgy pencil and much erasing, some ruled lines and freehand ones. I quit before attempting the ceiling tiles and floor tile lines.

The sides of the stairways are glass, topped by the stainless steel tubing. I left out the additional handrails that attach to the glass. The net-look area in the distant right is the security screen pulled down over the cafe counters.

Pencil doesn't scan well, but my patience surge was over long before I could contemplate inking these lines. On Canson drawing paper.

two chairs

Trying out the Koh-I-Noor woodless colored pencils. I like having a sturdy thick pencil to color with.

No frustration of sharpening a woodcased pencil, when the color core breaks and I have to sharpen again.

On Canson drawing paper.

at the pool

Any place feels like a vacation spot when it has palm trees. The ones at the pool were light posts, too.

Tech pen in the Clester sketchbook

imagining the sea

I like that unpainted spaces can become white capped waves.

W/c on 90# paper.

what's facing me

I parked the car and had time to draw a quick scene. It happened to be this stone culvert alongside the road.

So be it. I draw what I see.

Rollerball pen and w/c on sketchbook paper.

partly en plein aire

Sitting on my little painting stool, I drew the flight of granite steps. Then a chilly wind pushed through my layers so I moved inside to do the colors.

But there's real hope for spring. The forsythia are starting to open.

Colored pencil and w/c on 140# Fab. Artistico.

finally, warm enough to paint outside!

Our biggest city park has this stone building in the center. It's old, quaint, and very popular--housing the bathrooms.

Tech pen and w/c on 140# Fabriano Artistico.

playing with sky

Imagining and mixing colors. I guess this is a sunset.

W/c on 140# Arches.