Sunny and Cold

Up to 23 Degrees!

I'm not crazy about this paper.  I like the color, but not for winter.  We need to color coordinate our sketchbooks for the seasons, you know.  Blue would have been better  -  predictable, but better. I'm not really crazy about the texture of it either,  so I should just move on to the watercolor paper that I do like, and use this for lists and notes. 

I have a cold and my brain is feeling a little muddled, so I'm just sitting around eating cherry pie and drinking coffee.  That's what you do for a cold, right?

Cosmos

A Little Bouquet of Cosmos, Asters, and Ageratum

Because I carry my sketchbook around with me I use it to store information like most people use their electronic devices. There is no "delete" in my sketchbook, so I glued some Aquarius II watercolor paper over some information that I didn't need anymore.  I hope I didn't need anymore.

The drawing on the left was done with a Pentel Sign pen, which is water soluble. The one on the right was drawn with a sepia Prismacolor colored pencil, which is not water soluble, and then I painted over the pencil with watercolor.

Someone in class today had a Tombow brush pen.  Now, of course, I think I have to have one of those. It was sepia and had a brush pen at one end and a regular pointy nib at the other.  She was doing some absolutely beautiful drawings with it.  Oh, wait.  Maybe it was her talent and not the pen that was making that magic.   Anyway, Beverly, if you're reading this, those were wonderful drawings!

Orchid

Orchid 

Sketched in pen and Prismacolor colored pencil on Strathmore 400 Drawing Paper in my hand bound sketchbook.

Yesterday one of my students brought me a BEAUTIFUL orchid!!!  We had fun painting it in class, and last night I did this contour drawing.  You can see the patch on the right side of the drawing where I glued a piece of drawing paper over a botched try at that blossom.   I've had people ask if it's okay  (ethical) to patch, cut out, rip out, whatever, something you don't like in your sketchbook.  Yeah, of course.  Unlike life, you don't have to live with your mistakes in your art world.

I have been terribly unmotivated lately.  I have tried to turn this unproductive time into something positive, so I have been going through old sketchbooks, scraps of painting demos, and lesson plans written on pieces of paper here and there.  Organizing and sorting  gets me geared up for the next round of painting and upcoming classes and workshops.

Life is not maintenance free, and sometimes I have to look back at what I have done in order to figure out what I need to do  -  or want to do.  But what I want to do today is sketch that orchid some more.