I cannot believe how long it's been since I touched a fountain pen. They have been sitting with ink in them for many months (shame on me) and was in bad need of some maintenance.
First I completely took each pen apart soaking and cleaning each component. I have a little hummingbird feeder brush I used on the ribs of the nib unit to work loose any dried ink. My brown inked pen was the worst, which had #41 Brown ink from Noodler's. I didn't have quite the cleaning job with those loaded with Lexington Grey or Document Gray. After the components were dry, I (for the first time) used the grease that comes with TWSBI pens for the plunger that pulls/pushes ink in the barrel. One of my TWSBI 580 pens was a bit finicky in putting back together but I finally worked through that issue. Now I have four clean pens with only two I have loaded with fresh ink.
After I loaded the pens with ink, I took the one with Document Brown ink (instead of the #41 Brown) and worked a couple loose sketches in my journal with Fabriano Artistico Cold Press (old stock). The second illustration shows using the Urban Gray on Fabriano Hot Press in another journal.
I actually considered working the Inktober challenge this year as I've done it a few times in the past. First day of October rolled around and I jumped right in with remnants of yard debris from the storm that grazed us. After working a few illustrations, that desire fizzled quickly. Instead of motivating me, I felt this dark cloud form dreading the thought of 30 more days. No thanks.
After working what initially started out as pen and ink for Inktober, I chose to work with one of the mediums I enjoy more.
Lani and I were outside for a little while and as we were about to go back inside to the Sunroom, a dark shadow caught my eye. I looked to see it was a Brown Anole sitting on our air handler's condensation drain pipe that extends down from the attic outside the house.
I don't know if this guy was just relaxing there or if he was headed to the drip of water at the end of the pipe.
This year we have seen green and brown (mainly brown) anoles at every turn. They are everywhere on foliage, on the house, and even scampering across the lawn. We've never seen this concentration of anoles in the seven years we've been here until now and wondering if it was due to the warmer winter we had this past year.
We've also taken notice of the larger number of geckos this year as well.
Handsewn journal with Fabriano Cold Press paper / TWSBI 580AL w/#41 Brown ink.
My eldest granddaughter decided to go in with me working a challenge through the month and we agreed on sketching bees. So far I have worked four different types in four different mediums.
This has not only been fun but very educational as well....even at my age :-)
Was in the mood to sketch some flowers and I chose the sketch what's blooming right outside our kitchen window.
We have several hibiscus, most of which have the orange flowers. Also have a Hawaiian Hibiscus my youngest son gifted me with and also a double peach hibiscus. What I love is the fact these flowers basically bloom all year long.
Fabriano old stock Hot Press watercolor paper with TWSBI 580 (EF) and #41 Brown ink. QoR watercolors.
Lately I have been craving fruit and fortunately, it's the time of the year when some of our favorites are in season.
Rainier Cherries are a favorite and they show up in Publix for only a very limited time. I limit myself to only five a day.
Another favorite is the Golden Kiss Melon. It's the sweetest of the cantaloupe type melons. Then there is the Watermelon and fortunately the season lasts for awhile. Both of these I weigh in at around 50 gr each a day however, I will eat up to 100 gr of watermelon if that is all we have on hand.
Normally I would get Strawberries about now but we haven't had a lot of luck purchasing sweet strawberries or with any real flavor to them. We feel we waste money on them more often than not. This is one fruit I can eat more of when I do get lucky enough to purchase a good batch.
Gala Apples are my go to apple variety and I get them regularly throughout the year. I only eat a quarter of an apple each day with just a little peanut butter for added flavor. They are normally an evening snack for me.
Taking notice of the low amounts I eat, I have to watch my sugar and carb intake so rather than do without, I allow myself small quantities just so I don't feel deprived.
And besides zucchini, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli, which I eat regularly, I've been in the mood for tomatoes. Our favorite being the ones sold still on the vine. Even though technically tomatoes are considered fruit, I view them as vegetables.
I like eating sliced tomato in a wrap or between bread with salt and pepper with a little mayo as it mixes wonderfully with the juice making a wonderful dressing.
Page worked in the handsewn journal made with old stock of Fabriano Hot Press watercolor paper using the TWSBI 580 fountain pen with #41 Brown ink.
For ink and watercolor this month, I chose to do these two pages first showing the initial buds and early fruit on our grapefruit tree.
Worked in handsewn journal using old stock of Fabriano Hot Press 140 watercolor paper, TWSBI 580 with new EF nib and #41 Brown. I decided to use other than Sap Green for my greens...all Daniel Smith pigments.
Note about the TWSBI 580: After working with the 580 and a F nib for a while, I purchased the EF replacement nib and definitely prefer the EF nib. The TWSBIs I have all feed wet compared to other pens and the F nibs were feeding ink that took too long to dry. With one sketch I worked even after 20 minutes smudged when I went to erase the pencil lines.
Continuing with the theme of what foods I like and try to incorporate into my day to day eating habits, I worked this page of vegetable doodles.
Many of the dishes I create use cauliflower and sometimes broccoli. I love garlic and adding a touch of jalapeno for a little extra flavor and heat with most foods I eat. Green Beans with onion and bacon is one of my favorites along side of the Kale soup we make. For healthy snacking, I like sliced cucumber and tomato as I can't handle celery and prefer carrots (not shown) either grated in a salad or steamed. Another major vegetable (not included on page) that I eat a lot of is Zucchini either grated or spiralized.
Worked in 5.5x7 Fab Hotpress journal using TWSBI Eco with EF nib and Lexy Ink.
After the big disappointment with the Magnolia, I decided to redirect my interest in other things to sketch.
One of the days I went out to check on the Magnolia, these Ibis were in the back near the tree. I was able to move around a bit without scaring them taking pictures. These guys seldom come to the back yard so it was a surprise to me to see them there.
Terry went to get some ice cream for us and knowing I'm trying to watch my calorie intake, he found these mini cones. Nestles makes mini drumsticks and I have always loved their large cones but Publix was out of them. So he decided to get these from Blue Bunny for me to try.
Last month I worked a watercolor sketch and a digital sketch of my orchid at the bud stage. I wanted to work another digital with it in full bloom and got a bit carried away. This took me hours starting yesterday morning at 10 a.m. and worked it off and on until 4:30 this morning. Then I picked back up on it at around noon and finished this afternoon. Today's work was fine tuning after a few hours of sleep and fresh eyes adding deeper values, blending and smoothing edges.
So far I have seen and monitored two buds that opened and went through the stages up to all petals turning brown. There was another bud ready to open as of last night I was so looking forward to seeing as there were no limbs or bunches of leaves to hinder the flower from opening completely.
When I woke up, I went outside and took a picture of that bud and knew that sometime through the day, it would definitely open. And I was right. UNFORTUNATELY, sometime during the day, something attacked this flower leaving petals on the ground exposing an entire side of the center. Chances are it may have been squirrels as we have an over-abundance of them this year eating up our growing avocados and causing havoc at our bird feeders. Neighbors are also complaining about how bad the squirrels are this year. One neighbor in particular has already trapped over two dozen (just from his yard) relocating them to the National Forest near us.
Last page in journal from Fay. TWSBI 580ALR w/#41 Brown / QoR and DS watercolors.
When we moved into the house we first rented and then purchased, we cut down all but about 6 feet of trunk of a scraggly looking magnolia we didn't think was doing well. Our plan was to place a bird house on top hoping to attract Blue Birds. We never got around to building the bird house and the next thing we knew, we had new growth growing from this trunk to include side branches. Here a few years later we have a nicely shaped magnolia tree.
The type we have is an evergreen variety (Southern Magnolia??) that is showy with dark green leaves on the front or top surface and a gold/bronze color underneath. The leaves are large and waxy.
We noticed the last two years the tree had actually produced a few flowers only because we saw the seed pods. We kept missing the flowers themselves. This year I was determined to see them and starting around mid April, I started locating a few flower buds. At first I could only find three but have since noticed several others...mainly up higher.
At first it was hard to distinguish between leaf buds and flower buds but didn't take long to notice the difference. The flower buds are fuller at the base looking like a bulb compared to the leaf buds.
Over the weekend we saw our first flower open in a cup shape. Come evening I noticed the flower closed up. Next morning I found the flower was wide open spilling stamens that would catch on the cup shaped petals. By evening, the petals were turning a Burnt Sienna like color of brown. My understanding is that the flower life is basically two full days before turning brown and petals finally dropping leaving a cone shape that continues to develop into seed pods.
As of yesterday we had two fully opened flowers - both at the point of petals turning brown. There is one bud that is getting close to opening and have found several others at the point in this first sketch.
First two using sketchbook with Fabriano Hotpress paper. TWSBI 580ALR (F) w/#41 Brown ink. QoR and DS watercolors.
For my goal to work at least one straight pen and ink sketch for the month, I started sketching these simple flowers. I started in one of the hand-sewn books I made year before last using up old stock of Fabriano Hotpress paper. I've not had issues before but I sure did with this page.
Using my TWSBI 580ALR with fine nib, I felt this drag like I would imagine trying to sketch on waxed paper. The ink went down very light almost like it had been watered down. Going back over those lines, the paper then grabbed the ink making areas super dark.
Not real happy with the results but then I really didn't feel like putting much more effort into this due to the way my pens were behaving on this particular page. The following two pages didn't give me trouble so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't run into this again with the remaining pages in my sketchbook.
No idea what prompted me to look into family crests but I spent awhile looking at those, wedding crests, and mono crests. I was intrigued by those not traditional with shield and armor and started thinking about what I could come up with that fits me. And rather than designing all new content, I decided to go through my previous sketches and paintings and use some of my favorites.
This would be classified probably as mixed media digital since I used both digital and watercolor sketches to make this up and designed it in photoshop elements.
This represents my favorite bird which is the hummingbird. It includes my favorite colors which are greens and golds. Green represents nature and life and golds represent warmth and comfort. This "crest" represents my love for art, fishing, gardening, and includes my favorite sketching model, Opal. And the quote is how I live.
Alexa chose the number assigned to "Items I tend to Collect" which covers quite a few ideas I can sketch this month. I have quite a collection of pens, various trinkets, and stuffed animals to include my miniature bears. One of my biggest weaknesses is collecting various cases.
Most normal women get into buying/collecting dozens of shoes and/or handbags but then no one can call me normal.......ha ha. I find a handbag I like and I'll use it for every occasion until it falls apart. And shoes......I have two pairs of dress shoes (navy and black), pair of sneakers until they wear out, and pair of flipflops ... given the choice, I go barefoot. I never got into matching shoes with clothing or handbags like many women do. And as for clothing, my wardrobe is very simple with maybe a dress or two, t-shirts, a few blouses, and jeans.
Anyways......for my first example for this theme, I went with a few cases I have sitting right here near me that hold mainly pens but also a few other art supplies to include drawing pencils.
Second to last page in the journal Fay made for me / TWSBI 580ALR with Urban Grey ink / QoR watercolors.
One of our neighbors with children raise Monarchs and while Terry was out walking Miya, he was called over to check out butterflies emerging from their Chrysalis. He came back to the house to get his camera and went back over taking pictures and learning more about the process.
This family plants Milkweed in pots to attract Monarchs. Eggs are laid followed by the caterpillars. These caterpillars are fed the leaves of the milkweed to keep them around so they create their Chrysalis in the plants. The family moves these plants inside a pop up screened housing you can purchase for this purpose and enjoy the time when the Monarchs emerge. The wife also created a board with rope they hang under their outside porch light. It's evident that the family takes a few of the Chrysalis by hand and tie to the rope where they stay until the butterflies emerge.
How neat for those children to be apart of that experience!!! I learned a lot from this as well.
Terry was told this continues until around October so we have plenty of time should Terry follow through with trying this himself.
From photos, I worked these both digitally and in my sketchbook. I wanted the digital to be more like how I work in my sketchbooks rather than in depth or formal like I've been doing lately in Procreate (like the portraits and flowers, etc.).
This follows one of the photos Terry took - using Procreate and Gouache brush tool for color work and BJD's Standard Inker for line work and writing.
