New Sketchbooks and some older sketches

Remember the sketchbook I made? The paper wasn't folded with the grain and as a result it was all a bit wonky. Also, I hadn't realized I knicked the spine, which began to fall apart after being carried around in my purse. It was very heavy! So, I tore it down and made these three sketchbooks. The material is just some I had laying around from an old project. The rings are 1", not the really big ones; and I used Yes! paste for the glue. The small one pictured with the cover open is identical to the largest one, and they all have an envelope glued into the back. These are incredibly easy to make--I made all three the same day! But what I really like, is that I have no fear because there is always the possibility of removing a page. Or adding. Or even selling one! I'm not embarrassed to have someone look through it and as a result, I'm taking it everywhere and actually getting it out to use!

This is a failed experiment that for some reason, I still kind of like. Paul Wang, Hong Kong correspondent for Urban Sketchers, had a few pictures of his pre-painted pages along with the finished pages. I love his color so decided to give it a go. Well, what was supposed to be a light red wash turned out much darker than intended because I was sitting in the sun on a dry day and as I touched the paper it seemed to dry on contact. A wash was next to impossible using my waterbrush. I left it with the red wash over my sketch for several weeks before deciding to add more color and see if I could make it work. Since this scan I have actually gone back and touched up the trees some. They look better, but I'm too lazy to rescan. The sketch was done while waiting in the truck at Lowe's, during all that recent construction.

Another sketch from Lowe's parking lot, done back in Sept; and a sketch of mom's car in her garage. Never went back to paint them, but I'm not interested enough to bother with that. Maybe one day I'll get the urge.

And of course, what sketchbook doesn't start with a page like this? (for me, anyway!)

These three sketches are the first three pages of the larger sketchbook pictured above. I've also added some loose drawings that I didn't want to get lost. So far, I'm really liking the freedom I feel with these sketchbooks! (The sketches in this post were all in the sketchbook before I tore it down to make the smaller ones.)

A quick update to let you know...

My apologies to those missing my comments! I am way behind in all things blogging. Not only did I have fourteen guests staying this weekend last, I have ten to eleven staying this coming. But, that is not the frustrating part, I do enjoy entertaining! The frustration comes from having to completely return my computer back to factory condition-TWICE-because of a computer virus. Have you heard of that Windows Police Pro? Yep...knocked me out completely! Needless to say, I haven't done much surfing the last two weeks or so. Not much drawing either! This is all I have to share with you, and if you notice the dates you'll see they're a good week apart. I think I nearly have things back in order now. I think! If I've missed you, please know I'll be coming back very soon! I should be back to myself by Monday or so.


I've never been a "cat person", but recently I was adopted by a scrawny black cat. I couldn't help but feed him, he looked like he was starving. He wasn't used to people and it took me a week before he'd let me touch him. Now he's the bravest cat I've ever seen. He doesn't hide when strangers visit like my mother's cat. I've named him Edgar Allen Poe, Eddie for short. I'm sure there will be more on Eddie here in the future. Stay tuned!

Wells Fargo, redone

Okay, although I admire the digital artwork of many artists and I do respect it as an artform, I felt as if my last post was cheating in a way. I hated that while my posted picture didn't look so bad, the actual sketchbook page looked terrible. So, on the advice of several commenters (and thank you for that!), I went back over it with watercolor pencils. What a difference! You may, or may not, like it as much as the last one, but I am happy because if someone were to open my sketchbook, I wouldn't be embarrassed! I do believe I'll be using these pencils for the rest of this moleskine.

Lessons relearned?

This sketch taught me many things. One, I'm not as intelligent as I liked to believe. I knew, absolutely knew that watercolor is difficult on the Moleskine Sketchbook. Two, when you know you are not feeling patient, don't start putting in the bricks. Three, don't take on a building with a complicated awning in fountain pen, when you haven't used one in quite a while, and you didn't check to see that it was full.Very unhappy overall, though I've managed to hide some of the yuckiness for you, with the magical powers of Corel Painter. I'll call it mixed media and turn the page. Tomorrow is another day. Think I'll go back to people! At least if they move I'll have something to blame! ;)

GAH!

Whoa! Things went from bad to worse when I added watercolor to my sketch! I've heard about the wax repelling the watercolor in the moleskine sketchbook, but I had had a more successful attempt earlier on a smaller sketch, so I thought I could pull it off. To hide some of the awfulness, I then added some watercolor pencil. That only helped a little, so I then went over it with the ink. I'm not really happy with it, but I blame it on the paper instead of myself this time. Anyway, the pencil sketch was dull and needed some life. This is an improvement from that.

I forgot to paint the rearview mirror. It is bland anyway...only shades of gray since all I could see was the ceiling. I really really wanted it to have my husbands face in it, but he wouldn't let me move it. He said, "Besides, you would be cheating because that isn't what you see!"

I hit the road...

I just returned from a quick vacation to North Carolina to see my husband's family. It was last minute and I had planned to post from the road. There were all of these grand ideas floating around in my head: I would draw for hours every day and have tons of sketches to post at night. I took the laptop, the camera, all the cords...everything I would need to post without a scanner. ...But we can all see how far I got with that!

We went by car and hit seven states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina). 2600 miles, round trip. Since I get car sick easily, I didn't last long on sketching from the car. Though it was a nice thought. When we got to our hotels, I was exhausted and my husband needed to use the computer to figure out more of the trip. So I didn't fiddle with my blog, or even look at others.

We finally arrived and went to visit Grandma O. After much talking and catching up she said she had a CD she wanted us to hear. About 10 minutes into the CD, Grandma was snoring in her chair and a few minutes later my husband was too. I was afraid Grandma would wake up to me staring at her, so I attempted a sketch of my husband. It was done on the back of an envelope, very quickly. The sketches of him are a bit wonky because he moves a lot-even in his sleep!



I do wish I had known I would be traveling a little sooner. There are so many of you that I would have tried to meet up with and I'm bummed that I was so close and didn't have time! I had a fantastic time though and have more sketches to post and a lot to color.

And if anyone has any tips on how to get a better scan from a moleskine sketchbook, I'm open to suggestions!

HEB parking lot

I'm really really embarrassed about this one. Well, the painting part...

Today we stopped by HEB, and while my husband went in for a few items, I stayed in the car to sketch. He is always very fast so it was a race against time. I only had time to sketch in the main part of the building, which I could only see bits of, the outlines of some trees, and two of the cars, one of which left before I finished. The sketch I liked. But, it was on regular printer paper and I tried to add watercolor. What a disaster! Oh well, I am glad to have made the experiment without worrying too much about the preciousness of a sketch! ...which is actually a huge step in itself, for me.

Not so perfect, but it's something

I didn't participate in the 23rd Sketchcrawl yesterday. I wanted to, but things came up unexpectedly. So I ended up spending quite a bit of time trying to post to the new EDM Superblog2. Thus far I've been unsuccessful. While taking a break away from that frustration, I went to my backyard and sketched. This is fountain pen on notebook paper. And I wasn't trying to be so perfect. You'll notice the car on the right...I started to draw the part that showed on the left of the tree, then got interrupted before starting the part on the right. I wasn't really back into it when I drew that side, and it shows. Oh, and the wheelbarrow ended up floating somehow, so I put a box looking thing under it. Things like this happen to me a lot because I rarely look down at my paper until I add shading or texture.

By the way, I pretty much ruined the drawing of my husband at Starbucks. Maybe I'll try to fix it later.

A few sketches...in public? or not?

Okay, so I didn't draw EVERY day. I did draw some though; and, in public-sort of.

Tuesday afternoon my husband and I decided we needed to get away for an afternoon in Galveston. So, that afternoon we went to the grocery store to load up on goodies to take in the cooler. I stayed in the car and sketched. (I was covered in paint anyway...too embarrassed to go in.)


Does it count as drawing in public if you're in the car in a parking lot where no one can look over your shoulder?

Wednesday we headed off to Galveston Island. We had a wonderfully relaxing day. We walked, we went to the Strand, we sat around listening to the waves. It took me awhile to decide what I would draw. Looking out at the water didn't seem challenging enough with the straight line of the horizon, unless I concentrated on the water, which actually seemed too much for me. I went with drawing my husband, which many would say I could do anytime (my mom did say that), but really I can't because he's never still! This sketch(ten minutes, maybe?)was torture for him.
By the time I got out the sketchbook, we had both had enough rays, so we were sitting with our backs to the sun. That is a white t-shirt on my husband's head. He didn't want his neck or ears to burn. I think I'll use this as EDM challenge #176, Draw something summer.I guess this is done in public, but does it count if the person nearest you is 200 feet away?