Returning to Our Feeders

During the summer months, the birds most active at our bird feeders are the Cardinals and the Doves.  Occasionally we MIGHT see these others but for the most part, they are seldom seen at the feeders until around August or so.  They continue until the summers months when they evidently  prefer bugs and other natural foods (only a guess on my part).

We changed brand of food back in August and now sticking with only black sunflower seeds.  That might be another reason as before we were getting the lesser expensive mixes that possibly were not quite as enticing. 

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils (dry) / Mechanical Pencil 05

Who is Your Favorite Online Art Supplier?

My top favorite trusted art suppliers:

Fountain Pens / Ink:

Other Art Supplies (in order of ordering preference).  When choosing who to go through, I compare prices first.  Then I look at the minimum dollar amount I have to reach that gives me free shipping.  Another thing I take into consideration is how fast the order is processed and arrives at my doorstep (based on order history).

I used to use Amazon before any other place; but, these days it's difficult knowing if you are purchasing actual name brands or knockoffs.  I've been burnt a few times so I tend to go through these other websites when ordering online.  Might be a little higher priced but at least I feel more confident that I'm getting the real thing. 

As for supporting local businesses, we have a local art supply (DK Art Supplies) that I use occasionally and would love to shop more often; however, for many people, price is a major consideration and often local means much higher prices compared to ordering online.  Those times I do shop locally is when I only need a single item rather quickly or do not have time to wait until I have a large enough order to get free shipping from other sources.  Plus local businesses can only maintain a limited choice of supplies and brands.  DK Art Supplies WILL order anything for you they may not carry; however, if that's the case, it's just easier to order myself.

Cathy Johnson's Sketch With Me - CHANGE

This month's event set by Cathy Johnson is about this time of year and CHANGE.  For many people change can be summer to autumn with changing colors.  For us here down south, there's not a GREAT deal of change due to seasons.........at least with foliage. 

We do have birds showing up now at the feeders that don't through the summer.  The mockingbird will return to the feeders  The black caps and titmice do as well.  We have migratory birds coming through and checking out the feeders like various finches.  There's a bit more activity with hummingbirds.   Another change we see is that the Sandhill Cranes don't come around as much through the neighborhood.

What inspired me or grabbed my attention representing change was/is the tree in our front yard.  What is our biggest show-stopping display with any type of color change is what we thought was a Golden Rain tree.  Doing more research, I've learned the tree may actually be its cousin......the Chinese Flame tree.

Both have the bright yellow flowers that develop late summer followed by paper thin tri-sided seed pods that range from an orange - pink - coral - red color......depending on their maturity and the way the light hits the pods.  Today was cloudy in the afternoon with a passing storm and they looked blood red.  Beautiful coloring!!!  There are only a few areas in our tree with the yellow flowers remaining.  What helps distinguish one tree from the other are the leaves.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / QoR watercolors / Lamy pens with Dark Red and Dark Green ink

What Overcharging a Rechargeable Battery Can Do

An experience to remember with regards to rechargeable batteries.  Don't leave them plugged in even using a USB port on a CPU.

This battery is from my previous Samsung S5 cell phone I use for other than telephone....mainly as a home thermostat remote.  It also has game apps I didn't want to bog down my current cell phone.

I went to change the thermostat the other day and noticed the phone looked and felt weird.  I noticed the screen was pulling away along the edges and bulging in the center.  Also found it was bulging along the back where the phone was no longer laying flat.  Upon removing the case and back to the phone, I found the battery was inflated.......bulging front and back.  And researching what can happen with batteries, learned this could have ended poorly for us either catching fire or exploding.  Lesson learned and BEFORE anything bad happened.

Replaced the battery with a second I had on hand and my phone is back to normal with screen back in place (and NOT plugged in).  :-)

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / W&N watercolor / Lamy w/Urban Grey ink

The Pumpkin Patch Near Us

A Church a couple blocks from us set up pumpkins and gourds to sell with proceeds going to groups like Boy Scouts, etc.  They do this every year.  I haven't been out this year to stop by but pulled up photos I took last year to sketch from.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / W&N watercolors / Lamy Vista w/Doc Brown ink

Pentel GraphGear 1000 Mechanical Pencil Set

This evening, two of my sons treated us to Chinese for my birthday.  My birthday was actually last week but due to work schedules, we normally have to celebrate holidays and birthdays when we can grab an opportunity to be together even if it means days or weeks after the fact (sometimes before).

After we ate dinner, the boys surprised me with this awesome gift I've been drooling over for months but wouldn't purchase for myself. 

Knowing their mother, they knew I'd be sketching using the new pencils and my middle son made a comment that not only would I be sketching, but that I would sketch them...........and of course they were right.  They were not even out of the driveway before I started sketching my gift :-)

The pencils feel great in my hand with a nice weight to them.  I love the lead guard on these that retract when you click the clip on the side.  I am also impressed with the quality of lead........especially the .3 lead which I struggle with breakage in other brands (even with a light touch I'm known for).  I was able to use the .3 on this paper surface and not break the lead.  That's encouraging for when I want to use the super thin lines for hatching.

I also love the color coding that tells me at a glance which lead it holds.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / Pentel Mechanical .5 / Pilot Vanishing Point pen w/Lexy Grey ink.

Live Bat in Bathroom

Yesterday while on the job, Travis came across this bat hanging on a bathroom wall at one of the houses he had to work a startup on the heating and air system.

He tried to get as close as he could to take a photo and the closer he got to it, the bat moved as if trying to make itself smaller and not be seen.  Travis definitely didn't want to spook it to where it might fly at him.  There was only natural low light in the room so he wasn't able to get the best picture but enough to where I could make out features once I lightened the photo in Photoshop Elements.

Another worker came in to do some work in the bathroom and saw what was on the wall and decided to hold off and leave until the bat was gone.  We just hope someone didn't hurt it.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / Lamy AlStar w/Urban Grey ink (just a touch of inking) / Graphite / Watercolor pencil

Opal and Jake

As I go through another spell where I lack motivation or inspiration to do anything, I brought out my two favorite "models".  I can always find a way to sketch these guys.  This is exactly what I needed and enjoyed working these two three different ways.

The first two were sketching with Ipad and Apple pencil using two different sketch tool brushes.

This next is working in my journal with pen and ink plus watercolor. 

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / Lamy Vista w/Doc Brown ink / W&N watercolor

Capturing the Moment

I was fortunate to have looked out the window at the right time for this, as he didn't stay in this spot or position long at all.

Quick sketch capturing his head just poking out among the leaves, which I almost missed.  He was in the top leaves of a 3 foot shrub making his way to the next shrub.

He's a welcomed sight knowing he helps take care of a few undesirable critters we'd rather not have around the house.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / W&N watercolors / Lamy with Dark Green and Lamy with Document Brown

Favorite Autumn Decor

We may not see the autumn colors here in Florida as we did up north; however, I do have various items I can set out that do.  My favorite being these shelf sitter dolls.

Started this page late last night into early morning hours and finished after I woke up this morning.  I may add a title or some description lower left but brain too foggy (lack of sleep) to think what I might want to say  :-)

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / Lamy Vista w/Doc Brown ink / QoR watercolors

Miya's Favorite Treats

Something I learned today when I decided to take treats out of their bags to sketch.....make sure your dog is not around to hear you in the bags or see you with their treats.  Thought I'd never get through sketching these with Miya bugging me for them.  Didn't help trying to cover them up.  I ended up giving her the smaller treats after I sketched them and then went to do something else to get her attention off me and the treats.  Finally finished the page early evening.

FIbook75x75 with Stonehenge Aqua / Lamy AlStar with Urban Grey ink / DS watercolors

Acorns and Palm Berries

I haven't done a great deal lately.........basically taking a bit of a break.  Even with that said, I've managed these two pages in my journal.

Both pages I'm using a Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen I haven't used in awhile.  Plus I loaded it with Noodler's #41 Brown, which I haven't thought to use.........mainly out of the fear of it clogging my pen.  One of my friends uses this ink and hasn't had issues so I went ahead and loaded my pen with it as I like the different tone that it has compared to the DeAtramentis Document Brown ink (although I do like it too).

Out of all my extra fine nibs, I think this pen has the finest of all.

Initially I was only going to work the one twig with leaves and acorns but then decided to work others I had on hand I've picked up from the yard.  And with this sketch I felt a tug of war between the left and right side of the brain.  I was struggling with focus capturing what I saw rather than what I thought I was seeing.

I was going to call it done but then decided to add a bit of color to the only one with leaves.  Also decided to use a greenish brown pigment I seldom use........Raw Umber.  It along with the Sap Green gave me the flat look I wanted where the leaves are drying out.

And today as we sat without power, I worked on this one off and on.  I took one of my autumn figurines and replaced the pumpkin and haystack with the Palm berries Terry has removed from our tree.  We don't like leaving them in the palm for fear of the berries falling and our dogs getting a hold of them.  Our understanding is that this particular Palm berry is toxic to dogs.  My son's lab likes to pick up everything so this way we remove temptation.

October's Challenge Between Friends

This month was my turn to choose the challenge.  I had a couple ideas in mind and last night I finally settled on one.

October's challenge is to choose a hand made / hand crafted item we may have created and sketch it.  Then we had to sketch each component that went into making it......it had to have a minimum of six components.

Years ago I was very active in crafts ...... from beading, to crochet, knitting, wood cutting, to paper crafts.  I chose this paper witch I made for Halloween that is about 25 to 30 years old.  I thought it was fitting for this month :-)

FIbook75x75 / Dip Pen w/G Nib for the paper doll / Lamy Vista for the rest of the sketching.  Document Brown ink used and DS watercolors.

I purposely left off the shadows (for now) as I have other ideas I'd like to use the illustrations for and prefer they not have shadows at this time.