Breakfast Blooms: Magnolia

Art and oatmeal with Georgia Blueberries and a Pentel Brush pen in a Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media journal.

Flea Market find: Le Plume II dye based markers

Another Flea Market find: Le Plume II dye based markers.

The colors are great! But I used them in my marker journal which is for alcohol markers and the paper started to come apart in tiny bits. I will try them on some watercolor paper next or maybe some Bristol paper for wet or dry media.

Art friends: Look at some of the yummy colors Le Plume II markers come in! And there are more!

Botany friends: several examples of epiphylly or growth on a leaf. 

More Leaves before Lunch:

Breakfast Blooms: Color and Sparkles

Art and oatmeal with Georgia Blueberries. 

Flea market find: American Girl Sparkly Markers and Pitt Artist Brush Pens!

The date on the Sparkly Marker package is 2010! But they seem to work just fine. Hard to take a photo of the sparkles. Art friends: This was fun! Lots of color and sparkles.

Botany friends: This compound leaf is an example of epiphylly as evidenced by the leaflet axillary flower buds. 

More leafy fun:

Trees in parking lots while waiting for appointments: Earle Poole Sanctuary

This sanctuary is not far from my home. I was waiting for my group to arrive and quickly sketched this red maple tree next to the grassy area that serves as a parking lot. It was a grand tree and I didn't have more than a few minutes, so I sketched quickly and then used my Stablio All black pencil and a waterbrush to give it some form.

This was as far as I got and there wasn't time for more. After dinner I opened my sketchbook and looked at it. Oh my, I thought, it looked like a winter drawing. No color! No leaves! 

So I doodled some greenery in while watching tv. (Derwent watercolor pencils and Sharpie Ultra Fine pen) I think I need to go back and count all of the trees that I have drawn in sketchbooks. Somewhere along the way, I lost track. I'm working towards 10,000. 

More trees in parking lots:

Cabbage!

CABBAGE!

An interesting leaf doodle! Purple cabbage sketched with a purple Sharpie Ultra Fine pen in Crescent marker journal. The way the leaves are folded before opening is called vernation. This is crumpled vernation.

More lovely leaf doodles:

What a green leaf looks like when I don't get enough sleep.

Riding in the car, doodling leaves. 

Black Sharpie Ultra Fine pen and different colors of Pitt artist brush pens in Crescent Marker Journal.

More leaf doodles: 

Foliage Fun: Just Doodling Some Leaves

Art friends: Having fun sketching leaves. Love these curly ones! Sharpie Ultra Fine Pen and Pitt Artist Brush Pens in Crescent Marker Sketchbook. 

Botany friends: These leaves are an example of vernation or how a leaf is folded and packed in the bud. 

Rhododendrons are starting to bloom

Beautiful weather today! Sun, blue skies, 74 degrees. Sitting outside on a stool sketching the Rhododendron. 

Sharpie Ultra Fine Pen and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media journal.

Also with a Sharpie Ultra Fine Pen:

Thursday! And it's lunchtime with the dinosaurs again!

 At the Reading Museum to dine with the dinosaur! And boy, did this dude have a big mouth. Why, it stretched all the way to the back of his head!

The sign said he ate baby dinosaurs, but as you can see, he was willing to take a bite out of my pulled pork on gluten-free bread sandwich.

The Museum has two dinosaurs outside. This is a Spinosaurus. It's carnivorous and larger than the T-Rex.

Spinney had quite a few visitors today. It was fun to watch the little ones scream and tremble in fear when he moved and roared! Just kidding. No, really a few kids would not go anywhere near him. Reality is a strange thing at the age of 4.

Many stopped to talk and check out my sketchbook. My Dino sketch today was done quicker and looser than last week's. I used a Sharpie Ultra Fine pen and my watercolor field kit (Winsor and Newton - artist grade). Too much talking? Still fun anyway! I also added a touch of grass. Studies of coprolites (dino dung) show that dinosaurs did consume grass. Where there's grass there's herbivores to munch on! I also added a background with my Liquitex marker.

Last Thursday's dino is here:

Gouache! "Jack" the Chipping Sparrow

I decided "Jack" needed some color so I went for the gouache (opaque watercolors).  Sometimes I'm a bit heavy handed with paint, so Jack not only got some color, he also gained some texture.

Yesterday, I posted my brush pen sketch of my Chipping Sparrow here.

Here he is all finished. I used a paint marker for the background á la Roz (no tag) Stendahl.

These are the tools and media that I used: 

Horadam Gouache by Schmincke:

-titanium white

-Indian yellow

-neutral grey

-English red

-burnt Sienna

Liquitex Paint Marker (acrylic):

-bright aqua green

Pentel Brush Pen:

-black

brushes:

#6 round

#4 flat

and a really tiny brush

Thank you for letting me share this with you!

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Chipping Sparrow: Pentel Brush Pen on Bristol Paper: To Gouache or not to gouache?

There are several pairs of nesting Chipping Sparrows in the yard. I love their Cinnamon Caps!

Pentel Brush pen on Bristol paper.

Should I gouache or not?

Art and Oatmeal: Ink-A-Doodle on Bristol Paper: Old Man Oak

Art and oatmeal with Georgia blueberries and an assortment of inks on Canson Bristol 100 lbs Smooth paper. Part of my "Oh, Let's try out ALL the art supplies on Bristol paper and see what happens" series. Why? Just because I'm such a creative soul. And besides, it's something I've never done before. I love to explore and discover!

Last night, I started doodling on the Bristol paper and came up with Old Man Oak Tree. This morning, I am using my Lamy pen with black Noodler's Ink to outline all of the patches of color.

This is what he looked like before using the Lamy. I used the ink that I found in my art supply closet and a size 0 round paint brush. Some water was added here and there as you can tell by the blurry bits.

I really need to do something about my lack of inks! This is all that I found: Higgins in a dark brick red, Liquitex in sap green and Noodlers' back.

When I thought that I was done, I remembered that there was a jar of Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof white somewhere. After finding it, I just had to add a few white stipples here and there.

The Bristol paper warped a bit before I glued it into my journal. Maybe I should have glued it down first to keep it from doing that?

Here he is all finished! What an interesting character! I must write his story.

More playing on Bristol paper:

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