Smooth and Flickr

I prefer smoother paper (like hot press) for my style of doodling ink and w/c. No snags for the tech pen and a different surface for the waterflow. Here I did the background first.

I finally got around to reinstalling my Flickr Badge. I decided to go with the non-flash to get a better view of the images and reduce download speed.

Refresh your screen to see a new batch, or click any image to see the uncropped Flickr collection. I only put the (slightly) better things there.

drawing in bed

When it's midnight under a dim light and I feel like drawing, there's the nondrawing hand and (see it there, upside down?) a bit of a sleeper's profile.

Tech pen on Canson drawing paper.

Mottled cat

I often see shapes emerge from my random doodles and strokes.

In this piece I was staring at the lines of purple and red and suddenly saw the legs and tail of a cat grooming herself.

So I fit in the rest (a back, head, and tongue) to bring her out on the page.

W/c and ink on 90# paper.

A new species

I was looking at this old doodle and the bird told me he needed a friend.

This guy emerged and told me his name.

Sometimes I'm just a channel for weirdness.

Pen and w/c pencil on a random rectangle.

same scene, different media

The watercolor version shows more true colors--gray cat in a green chair, painted on a pre-blotted yellow/blue page.

Then after Fen moved, I played the scene with a gray chair and orange cat, using dissolvable graphite and w/c pencil.

Color is relative in my art!

Cachet 65# sketchbook paper, which is entirely too thin for this much water.

Radiant kettle

My rainbow kettle calls me more strongly than the stainless and black original. And the colors reflect the heat of each part.

Natalie Goldberg, author of the inspiring writing book "Writing Down the Bones," also paints. She published "Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World" about her painting circumstances and process.

Goldberg's paintings are fascinating. She uses bright colors on everything, ignoring their true hues. A dynamic, energizing path to explore. Create outside the safe-palette box!

W/c on 90# Strathmore Wet Media.

Admiring Peter de Seve

Famous illustrator Peter de Seve has this amazing frog on his website and the cover of his sketchbook.

Playing with w/c pencils, I did a version of his frog. I changed the head and lips, took out the glass, to avoid doing a straight copy. Peter, your frog is clearly better!

I had intended to wash the pencil, but decided to leave the frog dry so layered shadings wouldn't wash into mud.

Colored pencil in a Cachet Studio sketchbook, 65# paper.

a sort of landscape

This may be a purple-ish road between hedgerows, along a bloody river and yellow fields under a blue sky.

Or maybe it's just brush strokes.

W/c and salt on 90# Strathmore. The scan distorted the colors of the red and yellow quite a lot. But you get the idea.

Egg Bunny

May the Light of the season bring you warmth and joy!

W/c and pen on Super Aquabee Deluxe paper.

Always trying to catch the cat

A still cat? Green fountain pen was the closest tool to grab.

I didn't notice the brush had purple paint on one side until I started dissolving the green into a wash. Let it flow.

Noodler's ink on Strathmore Wet Media.

Making my own color in a whiteout world

The only colors out the windows are white and brown. We got 4 inches of very heavy, wet snow last night. Every single branch and horizontal surface has a white layer.

This is an impressionistic rendition of the amaryllis bulb that's blooming in my kitchen.

Somewhere people are wearing sandals and lounging on green grass. Maybe we can do that here in July.

W/c and colored pencil on 90# Strathmore.

last burning of the season

It's a chilly damp week, probably the last week I'll burn wood to provide that toasty feeling. We bring in logs using our handy Brookstone canvas carrier.

The gray tin antique boiler holds kindling. The squared gray flat thing on the right is a burn barrier for the wood floor.

W/c on 90# Strathmore paper.

A tree with a story

Crystal said "draw a tree" so this image evolved on a loose piece of 90# paper.

I did the yellow first, random blotting of leftover paint included some unplanned blue dots.

A quick tree in pen and painted trunk. Then a bit of blue wash at the top and pink pastel at the bottom.

Suddenly this tree had a story (distant forest fire at dawn). Fiddling around brings out the unexpected!

The Bear Model

Here's the "sturdy and solid" bear model. My drawing has him looking forward more than he really does.

When you don't like reality, draw a better one.

And don't his fists look clenched? He's tense all over. It's tough to be a wooden bear.