Favorite Sketching Locations

As I sit thinking about where we'll schedule our outings next month, the desire to sketch a map hit me.  This shows several locations we enjoy going with my favorite spots marked in red. 

My favorite spots are normally along the water's edge.  I love the smell, the breeze, the hypnotic soothing ripples and sound as well as the vegetation and the wildlife.  For me, there's nothing more relaxing!

Those marked as my favorites:

Discovery Gardens Agricultural Center - this is one place not located on the water but is one of my favorites due to the variety of trees, plants, and flowers.  

Wooton Park - There's a children's water pad, playground, boat dock, train, and where seaplanes take off.  

Gilbert Park - Nice park area near a marina and where Mt. Dora lighthouse is located.  

Venetian Gardens - my #1 favorite spot.  Located along the edge of Lake Harris with various channels with walking bridges that adds a welcoming feel.  Close by is Roger's Park which is a really nice playground area for children.  

Sharpie pen in Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.

Trying to Get Back into the Swing of Things

I haven't managed to do a whole lot of sketching since my last post.  We ended up making a trip to West Virginia on May 17th and talk about a rough trip!  Stormy weather topped with accidents made for a very long drawn out trip but we made it safely.

During our time there visiting Mom in the hospital, I only managed a partial sketch.

We made our way back home a few days later and that trip wasn't as bad.  We chose to drive at night and except for a few spots of light rain, the weather was clear.  We're learning driving straight through between Florida and WV is getting more and more difficult to do.

Now that I'm home, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

For a few days we are keeping my youngest son's dog, Lola while he and my middle son make the trip to WV for their dad's 65th birthday and to visit their grandmother who's been moved from the hospital to a rehab center in Huntington.

This puppy is so full of life..........a play monster for sure.  Our 9 year old dog is not crazy about  her being around either.  She sees Lola as a bull in a china shop and just wants to be left alone.  Lola on the other hand wants desperately to play.

There's an overpass in Charleston that we traveled each day to and from the hospital.  Each time we drove over this overpass, I was drawn to all the rooftops one sees and took several photos.  This sketch is from one of those photos.

Couple Quick Sketches

Yesterday and today both we saw our little hummer friend.  That's encouraging and hope he/she sticks around.  Would be nice to see more but thankful for the one after all this time not having them around.

Quick pencil sketch in Paper Blanks journal. 

And this is just a very rough sketch of something we laugh at several times a day, every day.

Miya, our little yorki-poo, likes going out with Terry every time he sits out front.  He sits while she sunbathes a few feet away.  And every time she goes out, she has to take something with her........mostly a toy.  Once in awhile she'll take her bone out but that's another story with her behavior that cracks us up.

This illustration shows what she does when Terry stands at the front door calling her to come out with him.  She runs to grab a toy (most often sitting in the middle of the floor in the living room by the foyer/front door) but instead of turning to go outside, she always continues on through the living room......through the kitchen.......through the dining room......back to the foyer and out the front door.

You have to wonder what goes through their minds or what makes them do what they do sometimes.

The Last Couple of Days

So far so good trying to do a little something each day.  Definitely on the right track to meet my goal of 365 sketches for 2018.

This first is worked in a 3.5 x 5.5 Stillman & Birn Beta journal using the hand crafted fountain pen and Lexy Gray ink.  Then added the little bit of watercolor using a waterbrush.  Only have three more pages before another journal is complete (front and back pages).

Procreate Sketch - primarily using the airbrush tool for this one for both color placement and blending.....all but the foliage, which I used the water brush tool.

8.5 x 12 Stillman & Birn Beta journal using the Platinum Carbon Desk fountain pen and Platinum Carbon black ink.  Worked this one for our sketchcrawl email for when we decide to go to this location......showing where to meet up.

This next one is working in Procreate.  I am so loving sketching on the Ipad with this app.  I tend to use the same two or three brush tools which makes it easy for me to remember what I've used for various techniques and texture.

Another positive to sketching digital is having light in the evening from the electronic screen.  I tend to grab the Ipad of an evening when there's no natural lighting to work under with pen and ink and watercolor.  Easier on my eyes.

As you may have noticed, I'm bouncing back and forth between paper and digital sketching.   Each offers different challenges to help keep me motivated and inspired.

Each step is a separate layer.  Not shown on the sheet of steps (except in the final larger image), is where I took the layer of the background changing the green just a tad so it wasn't quite as gray looking and extending around to the bottom right.

I like saving the steps to help me remember what I've done and also to help my granddaughter (and anyone else) see how I'm working.  Some layers might only be a tinge of darker color here and there.  I work the separate layer if I'm happy with what's already done and fear messing it up by adding different values or colors........like in step three (top right) where I only added a touch of darker color on the breast area and step/layer four (middle left) for the slight blue gray shadow.

I have two more sketch/paintings in the works.........one in my large Beta journal and another on the Ipad.  :-)

Day Trip to Barberville Pioneer Settlement

Yesterday, Shari Williams and myself went to Barberville, FL to check out this historical site representing "Old Florida".  Barberville Pioneer Settlement is a neat place!!!!  It was super hot and humid so we basically just walked around going through all the buildings and taking lots of photos we can use to sketch/paint from.

At some point I'd like to go back with Terry as I'm sure he'd love it.  And it would be a great place for our art group to meet up and sketch and paint on site.  Definitely want to wait until it's a bit cooler!!

For now I have a page in my hand sewn journal showing the map of our trip.  I plan to sketch/paint from some of the photos here in the near future.

Thought I would try my hand at copying computer font styles I liked but using pen and ink.  The fonts I copied were Gigi and Viner Hand.

Afternoon Outing

Yesterday, Terry and I decided to drive around a bit checking out a bakery that Shari told me about and showing Terry the old Church (not in use) Lee told me about.  We got a late start and hoped our afternoon trip would be before the rains hit us.  We did run into a few showers along the way but nothing serious and they were quick.

First place we went to was the bakery.  We chose to go there first to try out their goodies as neither of us had anything to eat yet..  A lot of what they sell is German baked goods as well as meats and meals at their deli.  Terry spending a good bit of his life in Germany was super excited about a German bakery/deli close to us.

Terry loved what he tried but I wasn't all that impressed with what I had.  To me the baked goods were dry.  I tried one of their pretzels which was tough (they were cold off the shelf), a cheese croissant (not very sweet and dry), and a couple bites of Terry's croissant ham and cheese sandwich.  The two croissants were supposedly warmed up but barely.  I ended up bringing home what I bought and stuck them in the microwave.  That helped to some degree......especially the pretzel.  To make my cheese croissant better, I added some strawberry sauce to give it some flavor.

After walking around taking pictures, we went next door to a fruit stand/distillery where they sell moonshine.  The guy there gave us a little taste of two moonshines........one just a plain (similar to vodka) and the other a brandy type.  The plain was nice and smooth.  The tiny taste of the brandy moonshine about took my breath away nearly causing me to choke.  We ended up purchasing tomatoes and a watermelon and went on our way.

From there we drove to Mount Dora where the Church sits just below a service station, took more pictures, and then made our way home.

Afternoon at Silver Springs State Park

Yesterday Terry and I decided to drive out to Silver Springs State Park to check the place out.  So many people have mentioned this park with a couple suggesting as a place for the sketchers' groups to meet up for a sketchcrawl.

We used Google Maps GPS and our travel to the park seemed like forever reaching our destination.  All the traffic and traffic lights just made for a very long ride.

Using the same app, Google decided to bring us back a totally different route.  What fun that was!!!  All back roads going through horse and cattle country and the edge of the Ocala National Forest.  Although distance was a little further, we were moving most of the way back.........not all the stops due to lights or cars turning into shopping areas.

So that we could remember this country road route to take for future trips, I decided to sketch it out in my journal.


While at the park, we walked around taking loads of pictures.  This trip we decided to hold off on taking the glass bottom boat ride.......saving that for another time.  The water was absolutely beautiful and crystal clear which is not surprising due to the natural springs that feed the river there.

There were people kayaking and water boarding (think that's what you call those standing on boards and paddling) which amazes me due to the gators.  And we saw one very large gator in the areas many of these folks were paddling around.  My thoughts with the ones standing on boards.........what if they fall off?

We kayak in these waters but I'm still nervous about the what ifs I come across a gator while out there :-O

Anyways.......walking around, there was an area where all these little black things were walking and hopping about with every step we took.  Little one inch crickets I've learned are called Eastern Lubbers.

What a beautiful Sunday it was but a bit on the warm side.  There was a chance of rain but we only hit a few minutes of some sprinkles right before entering the park.  We look forward to another trip sometime in the near future.

Both pages worked in the Hand Sewn Journal #2 with a Platinum Carbon desk pen / Lexy Gray ink

Trip Map and House Layout

I had a blast doing these two pages.  One is of our outing this past Saturday searching out various parks near us.  The other is of the house we are renting in Florida.

Saturday Outing:

 We made a huge circle checking out four parks.  I had taken my sketchbook with me and Terry took his fishing rod to give him something to do while I sketched.  Unfortunately the areas didn't offer much to either one of us. 

First area we stopped at was Black Bass Resort.  I still chuckle each time I think about it.  Resort to me means some nice fancy place to spend the day or even camp.  Pictures on the website were extremely deceiving to both of us so when we arrived, we were rather taken back.  Turns out the resort is a small fairly run down park with rooms you can stay in and a few sites you can camp on.  They offer boat rentals but not sure I'd trust what we saw offered to rent.  Plus the narrow waterway/canal was pretty grown over.........which isn't necessarily a bad thing but just wasn't inviting.  Nothing appealed to us so we didn't waste much time there.  Plus the bait shop said it was open but no one was there :-/

Second stop was as Marsh Memorial Park.  It was a nice little park with playground and picnic areas all under nice shade.  Evidently not a very busy park as no one else was there.  The one plus we found a boat ramp where we could launch our kayaks headed out this narrow canal to the larger lake (Lake Yale).

Next stop was Idamere Park.  A definite inviting family park off another lake.  In the center of the circling drive/parking area was a really nice fenced in dog park with lots of trees to offer shade.  We have a dog park near us but it's all in the open.  There was a really nice play ground and picnic area with pavilions you can rent and tables, etc. all around.  The park was in fantastic shape..........very well kept up.  There were people there to include a child's birthday party with kids everywhere.  That was the closest to anything interesting me to sketch but I elected not to.  Not this trip.

On the other side of the play/picnic area was a very nice pier with two bench seats looking out over the small lake.  The pier is a bit high so fishing from it might be a bit challenging.  We walked around and although there was a sign showing where one can launch a canoe or kayak, it wasn't easy to get to and a long walk at that from parking area to the water.  Maybe someone 20 years younger but not us.

Final stop was PEAR Park.  We drove around both with expressions like.............. huh???!!!!  What's the attraction here???  We saw a dog park and lots of signs for biking and hiking but other than that.............let's just say we didn't spend much time there.  Maybe there are other entrances to this large pear shaped area but the two we found didn't impress us.

After several hours of driving around, in and out of the car, and walking around, we were ready to go home.

The House:

After working the trip map of Saturday's adventure, I thought I'd do a layout of the house we are renting. 

It sits on a very large lot.........3/4 to an acre of land (I think) surrounded by trees and shrubs of various types.  Flowering, fruit, oaks, hibiscus, etc.  Not to forget the various shrubs throughout the yard as well.  Some may see it as a jungle whereas we find it very appealing after living in the woods in West Virginia.  Living back in a subdivision with houses all around, we at least still feel somewhat secluded and private.

As for the house, it's definitely larger than what we left but definitely laid out differently spreading things out quite a bit and with no basement for storage.  In WV I had a huge bedroom that had enough ample space to include office and painting table.  TV and recliner plus all the normal bedroom furniture.  I didn't have to go far to do much of anything except cook and eat.

Here I'm spread out between three rooms.  The largest bedroom is back in the darkest part of the house with a huge bathroom off one side that is probably the brightest room in the house next to the closed in sun room (Florida Room as it's called here).  That bedroom is great for sleeping and where I can relax in the evening in my recliner watching TV.

That bedroom has three doors............one to the bathroom; one leading out to the living room; and a sliding glass door that opens out to the Florida Room.  THAT'S where I have set up for painting and sketching.  I LOVE the windows and the light that room gets.  Plus the room is actually climate controlled although with the western sun coming in, the room can get quite warm.  That rooms opens out to a little patio and then french doors going into the living room.

As for my "office" or main computer set up is..................it's in what is considered the formal dining room in the front of the house.  Right now it's a combination office and guest bedroom..........only there are no doors you can close.  Just two open doorways one of which leads into the kitchen.

I spend most of my time back in the Florida room.  :-)