Breakfast and Quick Outing last Thursday

A friend and I met up Thursday morning for breakfast at a place called Billy's Cafe in Tavares.   Shari tries her best to get me out of the house so we are going to try to meet up once a week now while the sketcher's group is taking a summer break (due to the heat and other activities going on).

After we ate breakfast, we compared two type of water soluble markers brushes.  I brought a few Zig Real Brush markers and she brought Jane Davenport's MM Mermaid marker brushes.  We compared on Stillman & Birn Beta paper.

After we played a bit with the markers, we drove across the street to Discovery Gardens to see what might be blooming now.  We started walking around when it started to rain.  So that visit was short lived and Shari went to get her hair cut and I made my way back home.

Worked in the Fabriano Venezia sketchbook with a Platinum Carbon desk pen with Lexington Gray ink.

Selfie Practice

This is not something I really feel comfortable doing and especially sharing.....sketching myself; however, I thought......what the hay? 

This first is not the most flattering for sure!!!   It's a quick photo I took of myself to send to mom one day she was in the hospital.   I hadn't combed my hair but instead just pulled it back.  The likeness is off but it's close.

This next one is from a photo my husband took of me several years back (almost 10 years ago).  A little better, I think....back when I could actually do something with my hair before it thinned out and went mostly gray and scraggly.  Plus I actually had eyebrows which hardly shows today due to the gray.......lol

Re-visiting Gridding

It took a long time for me to be interested in learning how to use the grid method to capture a subject.  The reason for my lack of interest was the long drawn out process of lightly drawing the grid on my paper and then trying to erase the lines without disturbing the drawing.  I find with digital sketching, I can use the grid method without the grid prep each time and having to erase.  All I have to do is include a pre-made grid layer (1 inch is what I like to work with), work on another layer and then just turn the grid off when done.  A great tool when you want something to be more precise rather than freely executed by eye and hand.

On computer screen I want to sketch on ipad........

Working the sketch......

Process on Ipad using HB and 6B pencil tools......

Ending Results.....

Spontaneous Painting Following Steve Mitchell (Mind of Watercolor)

As one who needs to see something in front of her to sketch or paint, I decided to step outside my comfort zone using some imagination to produce this.   This exercise is following Steve Mitchell - Mind of Watercolor - video tutorial on YouTube.

This was fun but also a bit of a strain on my brain as I tried to work through seeing and producing the shapes with pen and ink.  Reminds me of looking to the sky and visualizing shapes in clouds or shapes seen in wood grain and floor tiles.   I need to do more of this :-) 

With kind permission from Steve Mitchell, I'm sharing my results. 

Worked in the Strathmore Visual WC journal.  I used an American Painter 4400 - 5/8" angular flat to lay down the color (Daniel Smith watercolors), 01 and 05 Micron pens, and a small round for a few areas.

Sketching a Gift

This sketch is of a trinket gifted to us by our neighbor after his trip to Taiwan this year.

Digital 6B pencil

Sketches July 10 through July 18

Sketching several of my favorite dust collectors :-D

July 1 through July 9 Sketches

These are several pages I've worked in various journals so far in July.  With June being the way it was for our family with two family members in the hospital, I have fallen out of the habit of posting as I work the pages.  Seems all I'm doing anymore is "catching up".  Hopefully I can get back into the routine I had going for a long while.

The first page of spiders was worked in the Fabriano Venezia journal. 

The little bear is one of many miniatures I have here at home.  It's fairly simple sitting on the page as I may use it for a card idea for the grandkids.  This was worked on Stonehenge 90lb paper added to my Fabric Traveler's journal.

The tree (worked in S&B Beta journal)  is what I sketched the other day when I joined two of my friends checking out a place called Crazy Critters.  Their camera club was meeting out there to take pictures of wildlife and also succulents the establishment offers for sale to the public.  While others were standing and walking around, I went back to where the car was parked and sat under a tree in the shade.  It was quite hot and muggy that day and it was getting to me.  I grabbed my sketchbook and a pen I happened to have on me and sketched until my friends returned to the car.

The page of poppies is practice between watercolor pencils and Derwent Colorsoft pencils.   They were worked in a small Stillman & Birn Beta journal. 

The cranes (also in the S&B Beta journal) was practice and comparison of my trying to sketch with a brush only versus using pencil first.  I much rather use pencil first than jumping straight in sketching with a brush and color.......lol.