Great Blue Hunting

Such a nice treat to see 'Blue' hunting as I pulled in to work.  Blue was in stealth mode and paid no attention to my car as I parked less than 50 feet away.  So intent was he/she, that not a muscle twitched as I put the car into park and reached my arm between the seat and door to the floor behind me where my purse with a 3x5 Stillman & Birn Alpha Journal lay.  I was able to sketch the entire scene in a black sharpie before this beautiful wading bird even canted its head in a different direction!  Thank you Blue, for holding until I could capture you on paper!
 

Ten-Minute Tuesday - Purple Ballpoint!

 

When I pulled into work today, there stood 'Blue' in the water about 25 feet in front of me.  Into my purse I went for my trusty 3"x5" Stillman and Birn softcover Alpha Journal.  Then I realized my small zippered pouch that carries my art pens, waterbrush and an Art Toolkit palette was at home.  Oh dear, what kind of writing instrument do I have in my car?  It was a toss up between a black Sharpie and a purple Bic ballpoint pen.  What can I say... I love purple : )  

By the time I finished my hunt for supplies, Blue was still holding its pose.  I so love Great Blue Herons for this quality.  What a great way to start a work day!

November Creations 3 - 'The un-Opening'

As mentioned in older posts, I work as the Arts Director for the lovely private community of Spring Island.  For the last 10 years I've had the joy of developing and sharing in our member's creative journeys. The program has grown over the years.  In early November we moved into our brand new Art Barn Complex.  Some of our Floral Guild members repurposed an arch of branches recently used for a wedding.  Freshly cut greenery harvested from our nature preserves was woven into the spaces between branches.  A beautiful entrance was created.  Then, due to Covid, our very scaled down ribbon cutting ceremonies got scratched.   I couldn't let this beauty go undocumented.  First came a very quick drawing with a micron pen.  Later I added watercolor.  Forever preserved in my sketchbook.  I am happy.
 

November Creations 2 - Bluffton SketchCrawl

On the second Saturday of each month, the Bluffton SketchCrawl takes place.  We've done a lot of virtual meetups over the last few months.  We have a FB page that helps us see each other's monthly sketches.  

In November, we ventured out to the Old Town area of Bluffton.  We didn't do the traditional meetup prior to finding our places to sketch, nor did we meetup after to take a group photo.  I did see a couple of sketchers from a distanced.  It warmed my heart.

I chose to sketch in ink with my Platinum Carbon fountain pen.  I love the line it makes. Brave of me to try architecture directly with ink.  The building turned out a wee bit wonky.  This is my Stillman and Birn Zeta Journal.  The subject: Church of the Cross - a Bluffton landmark that sits on a bluff overlooking the May River.  A must see if you are visiting the area.

10-Minute Tuesday

 All week I've been watching the hummingbird wars at the feeder.  In past years, I've only seen a lone female at the feeder.  This year there seem to be two couples.  One male has staked out his territory and prevents others from feeding.  I'm going to have to put another feeder some distance away so he can't be a two places at once!

This sketch finishes off a journal page that began with a visit from the armadillo...

After dinner last evening, I noticed a bunny under the bird feeder. 
Had to use my binoculars at bit while sketching. 
Will give it some color another day.

10-Minute Tuesday... Make that 15!

I felt like working big today.  This is an 11x14 sketchbook.  "Sure," my inner voice said.

"You can do a sketch of the pitcher plant in 10 minutes. Sure thing!" 
Almost...

I set the timer for 5 minutes to get the drawing done. 
I used the small end of a Zig Dual Tip Brush Pen.

I set the timer for another 5 minutes.  Dang... not done. 
Meanwhile, I'm in the very hot sun and it's 12:30 pm and I've no sunscreen on.
Ohhhh, but just a wee bit more!

I gave myself 5 more minutes.

Calling this done for my 10, er 15 minute challenge!

Oh the Night Sky...

  

I’ll always be grateful for having dogs in our lives.  They’ve kept me connected to the night sky whether from the ‘last call pee trips’ before bed or the thankfully seldom wee hours of the morning ‘I’ve got the runs’ trips.  Probably TMI there!

During the last pee trip on July 31st, the sky was so lovely! I didn’t care that is was 11 pm, the sky had to be captured in my journal.  For those that have followed my art journey for a while, you know I’ve a passion for the moon... (see past posts here).  When I paint plein air at night, I have a setup that includes a portable LED light so that I can see my palette and paper.  There was no time to pull that setup out. 

I grabbed the little 3x5 Stillman and Birn Alpha Journal out of my purse along with a waterbrush and Art Tool Kit palette. Out to the driveway I went. The car hood served as my support, the porch light behind me as a faint light source.  Saturn and Jupiter were chasing the waxing moon. A Longleaf Pine framed the beauty.   The scene was captured using the direct watercolor technique (no sketching).  The paper stayed quite damp with the humid air.  I used whiteout for Saturn and Jupiter and a bit on the moon.  I added ink the next morning.

I so love the immediacy of working plein air!

10-Minute Tuesday Series Begins

As a celebration for fast sketching and a goal to create more accurate quick sketches, I've created a personal challenge to post a weekly sketch that was created in up to 10 minutes. 

I haven't had my bird feeders up in over a year.  Life was just a bit full and I let one of the things that brings me so much pleasure, slip by the wayside.  May I suggest if this happens to you, try and hold on and make time for those small pleasures in your life.  They are so healing.  We all need to take care of ourselves, so we can put our best foot forward.

Tools used: Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen, Art Tool Kit Palette with a mix of Daniel Smith and M. Graham watercolors, Pentel Waterbrush, Stillman & Birn Gamma Series Journal.

This sketch was created with a combination of observation through my binoculars and cementing the titmouse's body posture in my mind (or at least tried to), then immediately sketched what I remembered.  I love sketching with ink - no time for judgement, just get what's in your mind's eye down. 

Terrifyingly freeing : )