Category: Out ‘n About
I have been avoiding my blog and posting since we returned from our trip. I’m not sure why, maybe it was entropy or maybe I just got burned out posting daily earlier in the year… Anyhooo, here are a couple of pages I started while waiting for tour guides to take us through a pair of lovely old buildings. I finished them at home with pics of the sites. Maybe this will get the ball rolling and I will start posting again.
These were made in a Midori Traveler’s Notebook with a craft insert I cut down to fit. The previous post was the same notebook with a Strathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper insert. The kiddos think the notebook is cool and looks like something Indiana Jones would own. I’m still not sure if I like it. Having multiple inserts with different paper is nice, so is being able to refill it. However, the narrow width feels weird and forces me to do full spread, double page layabouts. The Aquarius paper is pretty strange also, it feels thin and almost fuzzy. It is a pretty big change from the Arches watercolor I have been working on.
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Posted with BlogsyMy eye is still aching from the Avastin injection yesterday so nothing fancy for today’s entry..
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For the last lesson in Jane Lafazio’s Watercolor on Location class we had to draw moving animals. Our house is pet-less since we all have major allergies and it is till way too cold to go to the zoo, so I was stumped trying to figure out what to draw. Luckily there is a nearby Bass Pro that has an indoors pool with fish and ducks. I went at night and the lighting indoors was dimmer than I would have liked by the pool and I had trouble really seeing the details in the ducks’ plumage. That was probably a blessing in disguise since it forced me to keep the sketch really simple. The ducks were in constant motion so this was a really challenging assignment– but a lot of fun!! 
When we came back home I wanted to get in my ink drawing for the day and was at a loss for what to draw. R2 was surfing the web and I really need work on drawing people, soooooo he was my victim/model for today. The smear on his elbow is where my fountain pen ‘burped’ on the page. Vintage pens are nice and have flexible nibs the newer pens can’t even begin to compare with, but they are unpredictable……..
The little toy figures by Safari Lmtd. are just so handy! I was feeling exhausted and in a punchy, squirrely mood so this little guy was the toy model of choice today.
I doodled on one page and took notes on the facing page during the sermon today. Great way to stay focused.
I don’t have a clue what this bird plushie is suppossed to be. He reminds me of a cartoon dodo, bright yellow with wispy fluffs for a tail, topknot and assorted other bits and kinda goofy looking.
The kiddos wanted to play basketball before the next cold snap hit, so off we went to the park. It was too chilly for me so I sat in the van and started sketching this tree. They left a message for DH to meet them there after work so even though it got so dark I had to turn on the cab lights to finish up, they played on. DH arrived and a friendly teen showed them how to turn on the giant lights over the court so they could keep on playing and exercising their dad.
This caffeine topped hairstick was custom made by NightBlooming on Etsy. I loove her work! I can’t function without caffeine so when she did a few custom molecule topped hairsticks, naturally I requested one with a caffeine molecule topper. Just perfect for the tea guzzling, ex-chemist, mad scientist in me!!
It was so nice out today we went to the park. The kiddos and DH played basketball and I walked the trail and sketched. The crazy kiddos were in shorts and t-shirts, while I was bundled in cargos, and a hoodie with the hood up over my 180 earmuffs, LOL!!
For Jane Lafazio’s Sketchbook and Watercolor on Location class this week, it was sketching outdoors. It has warmed up here a lot so this was great timing. I packed up the kiddos and drove to a town south of us with an historic city square complete with a bell tower on top of the old courthouse. They all sat in the van doing homework while I sketched and painted using the steering wheel easel method,LOL! We were parked in front of the new city hall anex, I wonder what folks coming in and out thought of the crazy lady drawing away??
For an ink drawing a grabbed a pair of the kiddos headphones. I stopped buying them the in-the-ear models after reading how that was the worse type for causing hearing damage and started buying them ones that sat outside their ears. We’ve been through almost every version, the ones that hook over the ears like Bluetooths do, the behind the head, then over the head types. The kiddos actually like this old school, earmuff type the best. It’s comfy on their ears (they even sleep in them) and they say that they can hear more of the music this way, especially complicated pieces like classical piano. Yes, they do like classical music and listen to it voluntarily along with just about every other flavor of music there is (barring dark, discordant music like death metal). They are an eclectic bunch.
I did a few sketches at the Steamboat Arabia Museum into the Fabriano Venezia Journal. The last one was done in pencil then lightly gone over with pen and ink and watercolor. I like the control and feel of sketching with a pencil, but the tombow was fast to sketch with. Since it doesn’t fit completely on my scanner bed, the scan turned out pretty bad, I really have to speed up the search for a large format scanner.
Our assignment in Jane LaFazio’s Watercolor on Location class was to go sketching in a museum or shop and skip the pencil, instead sketching directly with a Tombow pen. After church today, I drove up to the Steamboat Arabia Museum to get in some sketches. I’d never been to the museum before and it was very nice. Our guide was wonderful, and I would have enjoyed the museum even without sketching. I’m one of those people who can focus and tune everthing else out (just ask DH, he hates trying to get my attention when I’m reading!!) so I really wasn’t bothered by folks peaking over my shoulder while I was sketching. I did get a laugh when I was roughing in a sketch of a gunpowder flask. The gift shop lady stopped by and said, “My, you are intent. Are you sketching the flask or a lightbulb?” What a hoot!!! Things like that definitely keep you humble!
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