Café With a Fellow Sketcher

I met one of The Sketchers at a café downtown...

She is our steadiest & most persistent member

& a total inspiration.

It's so nice to sketch with someone else...

We draw, we chat a little...it frees my process...

Takes the pressure off that my brain wants to impose.

That's my Kakuno fountain pen 

filled with Platinum Carbon waterproof ink. 

The pen is very inexpensive,

but draws super well on Moleskine sketch journal paper. 

It felt like the pen was drawing rather than me!

Sketches From the Back Seat

In early March I got to be a passenger along Route 1 

heading south! 

 So many times I've driven that road, sneaking glances.

So I took the opportunity to sketch! Of course!

Composing sketches while moving quickly is in some ways

like putting together a puzzle. 

I grab elements from the landscape as it whips by

and fit them in on the page. 

By the time I'm drawing individual parts

they are memory images,

but with actual references in the moving landscape.

I added some colored pencil notations in the car

and later I painted lightly with watercolors.

Observation lists 

also come in handy in such fast situations. 

Snippets Not Sketches

 Back to playing with watercolor snippets & now, 

watercolor buttons. Buttons-bullets-chips-charms-dots...

Coincidentally I painted my dots at Dot's Café, 

unaware of the connection until later.  Fun!

                       

They were inspired by Robinsunne,

a local artist & teacher.

She makes "paper charms" in sandwiched pairs. 

Like beads, they embellish her journals.

To view one of her video tutorials

click here. For creating her paper pockets, another link.

A store bought envelope with 3 pockets,

inspired by Robinsunne's 

Tri-fold Pocket Journal Making Techniques

as seen in the linked videos.

The envelopes were intended for my color snippets,

(in the 1st photo), but there were too many, 

& I didn't want to hide them.

I think I'll put in some secret messages instead. 

I have some plans for my paper buttons.

Maybe you, Dear Readers, have some ideas...

Ideas or not, please do leave me a comment!