Pencil Sketches

Last week included travel, moving our daughter to college and moments to sit and sketch at day's end. 

I sat on the stoop of an Airbnb cottage the evening after a long day.  The shadowy woods in the dimming light of day drew me in.  

Back at home on my front porch.

A Sketch-potition

 My sister-in-law Dianne, once gave me a little sketch book for "sketch-potitions," or expeditions whose sole purpose is art.  I had a summer afternoon to dedicate to hiking and sketching, so I filled a backpack with supplies and set out on a watercolor sketchpotition.  My feet carried me down the trail to this charming Adirondack shelter deep in the woods in our local state park where I painted the view from the shelter.

First Fall Leaf of 2019

There's no denying the shift of the season towards fall.  The grandmother Sugar Maple tree on my farm is beginning to change her cloak.  Not scarlet yet, but the green is tinged here and there with yellow and orange-tinted leaves (in addition to the dead brown clusters killed by the periodical cicadas).
Here's a leaf I found on a walk to my mailbox that called out to be drawn in colored pencil.

Summertime Sketching

I have stolen time to sit in the summer heat, listening to the cicadas drone and losing myself in drawing.  Drawing becomes a meditation as you tune into the many shades of green surrounding you, seeking the right colored pencils to capture the scene 

Queen Anne's Lace in a pint Mason jar shares the page with Naomi Shibab Nye's poem, "Famous." 

Foliage reflected in a pond in the state game lands.  

Daylily painting

Day lilies

The summer rains have produced prodigious blossoms on the day lilies on my hilltop home.  Down by our little pond, a lovely clump of bright orange flowers inspired me to grab my paints, some (free) mat board and an easel, and create this painting.

I notice that the mat board absorbs more paint, but holds up well to being worked over with watercolor paints & brushes. Now I have a moment of summer captured for the howling winds of winter. That's the beauty of playing with watercolors. An afternoon of splashing paints on paper can still the sunshine and save it for a day when you need to be reminded that July will come again, and with it foliage and blooms and lazy summer afternoons. Blessed are we to have the privilege of being alive on days like these.

Painting down by the pond.

The Inspiration of Free Supplies!

A local framing shop went out of business recently, and a friend alerted me to the fact that the shop owner was giving away mat board, glass and framing materials (Thanks, Kerry!).  I hustled down to the shop, met the owner, Steve, and thanked him.  He seemed pleased to have folks removing the excess from his stock room, as the new tenant of the shop had already moved into the front of the space.  I primarily picked up a bunch of sheets of mat board, including this smaller piece of white mat board.

Something about free materials inspires free creativity.  A sense of playfulness and gratitude rises up, and you can experiment. The white mat board I painted this sketch on reminded me of illustration board, so I tried watercolors on it, and had good results.  No buckling or warping, and no need for taping. It didn't suck up excessive paint, but worked like watercolor paper.  I like the smooth surface.  

You can ask a framing shop to save you their mat board cast-offs.  Most are happy to do so.  You'll have a variety of sizes (usually 8" x 10" and smaller) and colors of mat board to paint on and create with (see the journal making post from May 14th).

 This watercolor sketch (no underdrawing) was made with a Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box and Pentel and Kuretake water brushes last night about 7 pm.  The light was shifting, falling so I worked quickly to capture the deep shadows and highlighted foliage.

A Fresh Look for my Journal

Chubby with the finished journal

I keep a written journal of my inner life -- part writing practice, part sorting out my thoughts.  I try to write daily.  After reading The Muse Is In by Jill Badonsky, I was inspired to play with paints and create a splashy cover for the plain green spiral notebook I'm currently using to write in.  I used Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors -- I love the lusciously bright colors -- and just folded the painted paper around the journal, taping it in place with clear packing tape.  Simple!

Paints (in egg carton), paper & spiral.

The back of the journal

The finished front cover.