Bananas

Worked a couple days ago ............. Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook and Micron pen.

This pretty much explains it all in the notes :-)

Artificial Lily - Pen and Ink

This one was worked over two evenings while watching TV using a Micron 01 in the Strathmore Soft Cover sketchbook.

Practice with pen and ink only and hatching / cross-hatching.  It just kind of developed itself working the flower first and then just doing something to fill in the background.

Although the leaves are not this dark in reality, I chose to work them this way to help push the flower petals forward since I wasn't going to add color.

Meeting Place - The Villages

This page is also from yesterday's outing.  As soon as I parked, I took a picture with my cell phone just in case I wanted to do something with it later.  I arrived early thinking I might work a sketch but Kathy was already there sitting at an outside table.  So I took the photo instead.

Although I have worked all the front pages of the Strathmore Soft Cover sketchbook, I'm going back through and filling in a few of the back pages I had left untouched.

Used a Micron 01 pen except for the notes which I believe was an 03 point.

Watercolors from my grab and go palette made from a Neocolors II tin with mixed brands of my favorite colors.  Brush was my waterbrush.

The Villages with Kathy Kreidler

I'm on another high today following my second day meeting "live" someone I've come to know and interact with through Cathy Johnson's Artists Journal Workshop group on Facebook........Kathy Kreidler.

Moving to Florida is proving to be such a positive for me.  FINALLY meeting and getting to spend time with people who enjoy doing what I love to do and getting me out of the house!

This morning Kathy and I met at a place called The Villages.  It was like visiting another world.  I was in awe over the architecture of this particular part of The Villages as well as all the golf carts coming and going.  So much to see and experience ........... to sketch and paint.  A place I plan to revisit many times :-)

For our first time together, we sat where I think was like a central park area surrounded by shops.  Music was playing and Kathy and I chatted as we sketched one of the buildings.  We met early before it became too hot to enjoy being out.  We spent close to two hours together.

Pen and ink plus watercolor in the Strathmore Visual Journal.

First Day Out Fishing 2015

With all the trips back and forth between Florida and West Virginia with my Mom going into the hospital and our finishing our long drawn out move between states, we are just now getting out fishing and kayaking.  A bit hot this time of year but we still managed to have a good morning fishing and loved just being out on the water.

We finally registered our Jon Boat, which Travis took out using an electric motor.  Terry and I took out our sit-on-top fishing kayaks.

Travis first went out and then patiently sat there waiting for us to launch the kayaks.

Stillman & Birn Zeta with mechanical pencil and an 8B pencil.

Quick Sketching and Ink Doodling

A day of pen and ink only practice doodling various things around me.  All pages were done in the Strathmore Soft cover sketchbook using a Micron pen.  Either Micron 03 or 01.  The bunny was using the 01.

When I mention quick, that's subjective.  What I consider quick for me may be longer to someone else.

Often I go through a procedure where I sketch first in pencil (not necessarily erasing along the way) but more for getting a feel for the subject I'm journaling about.  Then I go back in with pen and ink....erasing everything after ink applied, and most often adding color after that.  It can take me awhile doing this.

Sometimes when I use pen and ink only, I'm very slow..........still hesitating to put that mark on paper.........crawling along the paper surface as I touch point or nib to paper.  With these pages, I was hoping for a more spontaneous feel so I made myself move quickly and go with whatever marks hit the paper.  In my mind I was just doodling............a mind game I play on myself so I don't get hung up in working slow.  And it's great practice should I work with pen and ink out on location when I don't have the time to work at my leisure.

I tend to work right to left (yes I'm strange) and these were the first two pages completed.

That night I worked this bunny.  Was fun with just scribbling the lines in which was perfect for this subject.  And it's not perfect........I made errors along the way but with the scribbling and hatch marks, those errors just kind of melded into the finished sketch.

Day of Indecision

This was one of those days where I struggled making decisions of any kind.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to sketch or paint..........too many ideas going through my head.  I get like that and I feel overwhelmed which can keep me from doing anything.

To help me through times like this, I will play this game where I close my eyes.........shift my position or turn my head..........open and my eyes and whatever I happen to see or focus on, I sketch.

This is what I saw this particular day and as I sketched, I left a box to write in.  Then procrastinated in finishing the page as I couldn't decide what to write in the box.  Finally just wrote about my day.

I couldn't decide whether to add a background or leave as you see it.  When in doubt, I do nothing and this is the way I left this page.

Strathmore Visual Journal (watercolor)

Day Out Sketching on Location

For many people, this is a normal occurrence but for me has taken a long time gaining the courage to do this.

A good friend came to pick me up this morning showing me various areas near where we live and then went to a place called Mount Dora, FL.  I've lived here almost a year and still do not know my way around or what's actually around me.........which I'm learning is quite a bit.

On Sundays, Mount Dora has a farmers market set up near the edge of one of many lakes in the county we live in.  I set up under a pavilion overlooking the lake and sketched this lighthouse across from where I was standing.

This was my opportunity too to use a messenger bag I had purchased months ago to carry my gear in.  It worked beautifully and so glad I chose this particular one.  It's small but holds all I could possibly need sketching and/or painting in watercolor.

The cardboard you see is from the back of a watercolor block.  It's thick and strong acting as the perfect portable table (I'll have to take a picture of how I used it and share in a later post).  Lee Kline (who I went out sketching with) shared this idea with me.  Although it sticks out of the bag as shown, it didn't get in my way at all.

Getting back to the sketching, I stood and first worked a quick pencil sketch.  Then using my TWSBI mini fountain pen and Lexington Gray ink, I went back over the sketch.  By that time Lee was finished with his sketching and painting and I waited to paint after returning home.

This was worked in the Strathmore Visual Journal (Watercolor) and mixed brands of watercolor I have set up in a Neocolors II tin case.  I chose my favorite pigments from W&N, Daniel Smith, and QoR watercolors.

This page is special to me because of what it represents for me personally and the wonderful time I had sketching with Lee.  I can't wait to do this again!!!
 

Two of Many Beanie Babies

Back when I worked at the hospital I used to visit the gift shop often watching for new beanie babies to come in.  I was into collecting them years ago as was my youngest son.  We've given several away to the granddaughters but still have quite a few left we'll probably save for my youngest son's children.

Grabbing two of my favorites, I worked on this page last night with pen and ink.  Today I finished it off by adding watercolor.

Strathmore Visual journal / Micron pen / Daniel Smith watercolors

Ready to Go!

Tonight I worked this quick sketch of my bag for tomorrow's outing with a good friend of mine.  He plans to take me around Lake county here in Florida.  It's been a long time coming my finally getting together with someone to go sketching.  There are two others I know of in the area and hope to get with them as well in the near future.

Worked in the Strathmore Visual journal (watercolor) with Pitt Pen #S.  Daniel Smith watercolors.

Winning Tat Sketch

After several more attempts, I finally came up with a simpler design my sister in law could use should she get another tattoo.

First is on the regular white of the paper and then using photoshop elements, I created a background to somewhat resemble skin color to see how it might look.

She loves it!!!

Zen Dragonflies

I bought this dragonfly sun catcher and was in the mood to doodle so sketched one on paper using pencil first and then a Pitt Artist pen........erasing the pencil marks.......and then scanned it.

From there I created a photoshop layout where I duplicated and resized to fit a few on a piece of copier paper for playing with zen patterns.

I was thinking about my sister-in-law who loves dragonflies and wants me to come up with something she can use as another tattoo. She's used one of my paintings in the past (stargazer flowers) for a tattoo on the calf of her leg. Talk about the ultimate compliment of my work!

I will probably work on more trying to simplify patterns considering it would be for a tattoo.  

Granddaughters Sketching Their Hands

Thought I would share what my granddaughters, Morgan and Madison, accomplished after showing them how to sketch an outline in graphite and using a paper stump to shade creating form and structure to their outlines

Morgan's Hand:

Madison's thumb, hand, and flower pot:

They really had a wonderful time with this new technique (new to them)  and I couldn't be prouder of both!  :-)

May 11 thru May 15 Journal Pages

It's been a busy week unpacking boxes, sorting what to keep and what to donate, and then finding a place for what we decide to keep.

We didn't unpack a great deal from trip #2 simply because we didn't have all of our furniture like cabinets and shelves.  The first load was primarily my middle and youngest sons' belongings most of which have gone into storage.

Now we're going through every box and tote from all trips making decisions of what we really want or need to keep and what goes........starting with what's physically here at the house (later we'll tackle the storage unit).  And we did this prior to packing before we started this move but finding now we can still let loose of quite a bit more.

What's funny............a large number of items packed in totes and boxes happens to be books and art materials/supplies.  Go figure.........LOL

Come evenings as I relax and during needed breaks, I have still managed to do some sketching and painting.  Here are the pages I've completed.

Corked Bottle and Grapes

This finishes up my Stillman & Birn Delta journal :-)

I'm showing a smaller version that shows how I finished off the 2-page spread.  QoR watercolors were used after a line drawing using a Micron 02.  Also used a white gel pen in some areas removing some of the black ink lines and adding a few halos around some parts.  The whites on the grapes are actually white of the paper.....I remembered to leave those :-)

Monkey in a Cup

This was a lot of fun to sketch and paint. 

Only 2 pages left before filling another sketchbook.  These pages are in the Delta journal :-)

Still Life Models

Lately I have been picking up a few items I can arrange in still life set-ups.  I've also included a set of frogs which were a gift to me by my Sissy, Darlene.

Painting with India Ink

Received my bottle of India Ink so I could work some more using Steven Reddy's technique painting with ink and watercolor.

The India Ink is a joy to work with.  After mixed in water and sitting over night, it does not separate like the Noodler's ink did.  With the Noodler's, you could see a definite separation of ink on bottom and clearer water above it.  With the India Ink, it might require a quick shake but it still looks mixed throughout with no clear separation of ink vs water.

The ink/water solution went down much easier spreading across the paper (same paper surface as previous post).

And it might be my imagination but just appears to look cleaner in the final results than what I achieved using the Noodler's Black ink.  Will know better as I continue to experiment.

Stillman & Birn Delta, Microns 05 and 005, W&N watercolors, #5 Round

Fantastic Course on Craftsy - Steven Reddy

I have been a big fan of Steven Reddy's work using ink and watercolor for some time....first discovering him on flickr.  And for the longest time I so wished I could see him in action as he composes his still life setups and how he goes about working complicated scenes with multiple items (he loves the challenge of cluttered scenes). 

Lo and Behold.......... my wish came true :-)  I received an email alerting me that Craftsy was offering a course by Steven Reddy and I immediately jumped on it.  What a fantastic course beautifully presented and extremely informative.  By far my favorite of the courses I've taken to date :-)

Craftsy - Steven Reddy - Dynamic Detail in Pen, Ink, and Watercolor

 

Now I'm hoping he can offer another course showing how he goes about working landscapes and buildings !!!!!

The one item I didn't have on hand was India Ink he uses so I had to improvise by using Noodler's Black ink.  I'm really curious to see how the India Ink differs when added to water for making up different value solutions.  The Noodler's ink settles quickly to the bottom of the water with one having to stir or shake it several times throughout the process to obtain the value in which the solution was created to achieve.  In any event, I still ended up with a water proof diluted ink mix and made it work for these exercises.

April 2015 Journal Pages

April has been a trying month for family.  Easter day my mother ended up in the hospital and here soon going on four weeks, she's still there.  For 10 days Mom was in ICU and then moved to CCU a few days before being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital for the remaining care until she can return home. 

I just returned to Florida after traveling and staying in WV where Mom now lives with my brother and his family ..... just in time for my husband and two sons to travel to WV to finalize our move we started last year.  The guys plan to stop and visit Mom and spend a little time with my brother and his family before driving another three hours to our house to pack the rest of the stuff up.  I had to come back home to take care of our animals but may return to WV after everything is settled with this final trip completing our move.

With everything that has been going on, I still managed some sketching.  In fact it was my savings' grace while sitting there when Mom was unresponsive..........something to help occupy my mind and a recording of this major disheartening event taking place.

These first couple of sketches were done at the beginning of April before I had to leave.

These pages were worked while Mom was in ICU at Thomas Memorial Hospital in Charleston, WV  I would start the pages while sitting there and finish after returning to my brother's house.  Although I did start the one in the cafeteria and then finished it sitting in the car between visiting hours.  This was a major stepping stone for me sketching out away from the comfort and solitude of my home..........even in front of people (in the cafeteria).

The third Saturday in April was Cathy Johnson's virtual sketchcrawl.  I chose to sketch what I saw from the parking garage at the hospital with the intent of participating in this project with other people in Cathy's group only I never got around to posting it.

During the week after Mom was transferred to Saint Francis Hospital / Select Specialty Medical facility, I worked these few pages.

 

Mom continues to improve but not totally out of danger.  Sepsis landed her in the hospital unresponsive early Easter day.  What she has suffered is Renal failure, respiratory failure, congestive heart failure, Mercer infection in lung (pneumonia later put in her chart), and Sepsis.  One kidney totally shot and will eventually have to be removed.  The other Kidney working at less than 40%.  The one Kidney is suspected to have caused the infection in her system but it could have been her Gallbladder.........the Doctors are really not sure just what caused the Sepsis. 

Gallbladder, bile duct, and Kidney were all 10 to 15 sizes larger than normal requiring stints placed in both Kidney and the duct between Gallbladder and Pancreas area to remove blockages.  Infection is under control or taken care of but she remains extremely weak. 

After being on a ventilator for almost two weeks, she struggles to talk - make sound, and cannot consume food or liquid as the vocal cords/muscle/flap (what ever in that area) that closes off the airway to lungs is not functioning.  Everything is going straight into her lungs. Feeding tube that was going through her nose has now been replaced with a PEG going through her abdomen into stomach.  She's starting to make some sound when she attempts to talk which is a good sign but still has a ways to go.

So we wait hoping and praying she will continue improving so she can eat on her own and eventually be able to get up and move around once her strength returns.  And then we have the issue of her Kidney to face...........leave it or remove it once she's strong enough only to be knocked back for who knows how long.

She's a fighter though and has definitely proven that this past almost four weeks!!!