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!

The Full Moon Rising

I made a point of watching the moon rise, 

the last night before Spring officially turned. 

I sketched quickly from the upstairs window.

This gorgeous ball,

moved quickly as she rose.

Forget science, forget tanky machines & flags 

on the moon, THIS was the poetic moon 

of childhood wonder & awe!

A sketch, once she was higher and...

again, color was added from memory. 

 

I prefer to sketch & write notes.

But sometimes I'm grateful for my little camera. 

 

She is called The Full Worm Moon,

March being the month when earth worms begin to appear.      

   (Well, maybe not in Maine.)

Also The Sap Moon, when maple sap begins to flow...

 Below: Same place, the next morning.

The sun was now taking the moon's place, 

rising in just about the same place, to the East. 

 And while we had slept the night before,

that old moon had worked her way 

across the southern night sky, toward the West.

I went out to see her before she set behind western tree tops.

She was the same size as the night before, 

but she had on a misty, softly lit robe,

instead of her dazzling nightime party dress.

Springtime! A new awakening!

Art Journaling • Bullet Journaling

Above: "Rita's Reminders for Kindness & Care"

 I'm exploring the Bullet Journal phenomenon.

It's a way to make the organization of 

tasks, goals & intentions clear, tangible, and fun,

especially, I think, for the non-linear person (moi).

Apparently there is a whole community out there 

of people like myself. People who get distracted

by the great amount of stimulus that is in our culture,

thanks to technology (& consumerism).

And people who love to write, paint & draw on paper

verses on the computer.

When a children's librarian, on Valentine's Day, 
presented our Art Journal Group 

with a pile of disorganized cutout hearts for collages,

the participants created lovely designs 

with personal expressions. 

My hearts turned into a list.

In this group there is no time to censor images, 

or to judge them, 

so they get released quickly & authentically.

They are unrefined drafts. I'm often surprised

by the images that pop out, both as writing & drawing,

that reflect parts of myself, my past, or my interests.

I have recently created some Bullet Journal type charts 

on paper that are helping me enormously to 

live more intentionally, healthily, & efficiently.

I think they will evolve with time 

to be more artistic than they are now, 

& maybe they'll be integrated into my sketchbook journals. 

Thanks to Ryder Carroll who devised this 

Bullet Journal method & philosophy, 

to BoHo Berry who has adpated it 

in her artistic way, & to all artistic Bullet Journalers 

who generously share their analog versions 

of organizational tools through, ironically, electronic media!

And, Thanks Amy, our weekly Art Journal Leader!

What's in a Bookshop name?

Sketch based on my local bookshop, Left Bank Books

Have you seen the illustrated books 

Books & Mortar:

A Celebration of The Local Bookstore

by Gibbs M. Smith? And

Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores 

by Bob Eckstein

and the postcards of his illustrations?

This is some of  what I found in these books & 

in the What's Next brochures

that are given away at independent bookstores:

One More Page Books, Arlington VA

The Dog Eared Book, Palmyra NY

Bookbug, Kalamazoo MI

Once Upon a Time, Montrose CA

Hooray For Books! Alexandria VA

Red Balloon Bookshop, St Paul MN

The Corner Bookstore, NY NY

Politics & Prose, Washington DC (of course!)

Books & Books, Coral Gables, FLA

The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City UT

Page & Palette, Fairhope ALA

Is your local bookshop listed here?

What is the name of your local bookstore?

What would YOU name a bookshop?

Leave your answers with a comment!

Valentine's Day Fun

 

I tried printing this Valentine Girl

with my printer.

 But the colors came out badly.

So I did a black & white version 

& added just a few colors by hand.

Valentine Girl's source was a small, 

super quick sketch 

I did last summer

when a woman zipped past me 

while I was sketching a church.

 

 I led our Library Art Group this week in making

non-adhesive, folded gift boxes. 

Valentine's Day has been a fun inspiration 

for me since childhood.

I used the January page from a 

beautiful letterpress calendar for this box.

I've had a lot of painted snippets around, 

great for adorning boxes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Exploring Rather Than Wandering

 

Sketchbook Wandering. 

I've done it here for almost 7 years!!!!!

Sketching & writing still bring me joy & comfort, 

as when I took a pause from last Saturday's winter festivities

at a café on Main St. I sat by a wall.

My sketchbook transformed the scene to interesting theater.

There are people who appreciate my sketches, 

& some have learned from my process.

But:

Change might be starting...

Expression, discovery, exploration, reflection, 

& who knows what else! 

I've been experimenting with making marks 

with a brush & "high flow" acrylic paints.

(Thanks, for introducing me, Beth. Go to Sew Sew Art.)

My marks turned to shapes & my shapes 

arranged themselves.

Aaaah, order...but maybe not too much...

More will be revealed...

What to Do? Sketch!

What to do when you go to a meeting

& no one else shows up?

You could

1. Get angry

2. Feel disappointed

3. Sketch! And feel lucky that you're getting

some bonus sketching time

while waiting to see if anyone comes.

4. Oh, and be glad that you have your

traveling sketch kit with you.

The Skeletal Views of Winter

Out the living room window on a cloudy, post-snowfall day. 

In summer hummingbirds frequented the azalea bush.

They & the blossoms are gone,

but skeletal scenes of winter are very much here!

Stage 1 of the sketch. The minimalism of winter!

Sketchbook Wandering, close to home...

In and Out of Lines

My tiny holiday Zumba Girls have changed to Winter Girls.

When I'm watercoloring their fashions, I'm reminded of

my hours of coloring in childhood. 

Later coloring books were shunned by everyone I knew

as being detrimental to creativity. 

Now they are tremendously popular with adults,

& are sold as meditative activities. 

Are coloring books good or bad or neither?

My Prismacolors have replaced Crayolas.

Making this chart also felt like childhood coloring days.

I've been thinking about staying in lines, or not,

sharp edges verses soft, tight verses loose. 

Punching out colored penciled stars from my swatches creates sharp, 

manufactured edges and shapes.

Is this good for creativity, or bad, or neither?

What are your thoughts?

Colored Pencils with Rubber Stamp Printing

Accordion fold card, using a Rubber Stamp "0"

and colored pencil.

 Our Library Art Group had a presentation 

of Rubber Stamping, by one of our participants,

a retired art teacher & awesome artist.

She laid out a beautiful assortment

Stamps, inks, papers, &, what caught MY eye...

...a tin of Ticonderoga Colored Pencils! 000000H!!

I started randomly printing with an "0".

 Something about the repetition with variety, very satisfying.

Something about being minimal when I could have chosen

a lot of different materials.

It seems to be my theme these days: 
Simplification.

Leslie showed us no models, and barely gave a demo.
Therefore, every one was free to follow their own themes.
All processes & works were different from one another.

 I love my old Prismacolors, but seeing the new set of

Ticonderogas was very exciting!! A new toy!

After, I made some color charts. 

My Prismacolors remain my favorites, 

but the Ticonderoga's are fun! 

They got me to re-explore my own colors. 

Thanks to Leslie & to our monthly Art Group for 

lots of inspiration & fun!

Mini Zumba Greetings

I failed to send Christmas cards this year. 

But I have promised myself that I will send winter cards.

I did make up some mini-cards to give to a few local folks,

some of them being fellow Zumba enthusiasts.

 

 And a card for my Zumba teacher. 

I have enormous gratitude for her. 

This dance & her exercise classes have enriched

my life & my health tremendously!!!

Sketching While Waiting

One of my favorite rewards of sketching:

At the grocery store I had fun instead of impatience

while waiting for J to shop. 

I remembered to bring my new 7 X 9" book 

(previous post) & my Extra Fine LAMY pen!!

PS. For those of you on the coast of Maine:

Artist & Craftsman in Portland 

now carries LAMY fountain pens!

And Molly over there is an expert!

Sketchbooks. End of 2018: Bring in the New, Continue the Old

 I have a new, larger sketchbook!! Paper Blanks, 7 X 9"!!

I use these for journal writing, but I got an extra one on sale

so I turned it into a sketchbook.

LAMY AL STAR fountain pens. I have "a few."

In the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum. 

The annual model train village, "Share the Wonder."

Sketching the mini buildings & cars is a fun way 

to work with linear perspective.

On the left: I sketched a line drawing that Jamie Wyeth

did when he was very young. Part of a series featuring

a Christmas wreath as a "character" in a medieval Christmas.

NC Wyeth's large painting: "The Morris House: Port Clyde". 

Can't do it justice with a quick sketch 

as the colors are so beautiful!!!

But sketching gave me the opportunity 

to scrutinize it more closely, & to gaze longer.

The Wyeth Center is only open a couple of more days.

I went to say good bye to the NC Wyeth paintings upstairs.

When they are back on display sometime, you have to come to Maine to see them in person!

And to see the Maine coast on which they are based!

I've been sketching in my usual 4 X 6" 

Pentallic Traveler Sketchbook.

It also doubles as my Art Learning Journal. 

Both live sketches & notes from books, 

museums, etc. go in there.

 Earlier in the month I went to the Farnsworth 

with an artist friend who wore an adorable felted hat

that she'd found at a thrift store. She sketched 

the gold dragon in the Chinese Zodiac exhibition.

She made a lot of people happy with that hat!

 Waiting in the small town post office line before Christmas.

A relatively small line in a relatively small town.

We enjoyed good natured conversations while waiting.

And for me, sketching made it go very fast.

At the Belfast Saturday Indoor Farmer's Market.

It is my Saturday morning ritual to go there. 

The vendors are not just farmers.

They are artisans, artists & musicians too.

They are local.

 LL Bean, the flagship store is like a theme park. 

There are these real stuffed animals on display.

While waiting for J to try on clothes, I sketched 

"The Three Headless Men of LL Bean." (my title.)

 Trip to Boston in November. QUICK sketches! 

It was my very fist visit to

The Granary Burying Ground. Boston's 3rd oldest cemetary

where many notable men 

from the American Revolution are buried.

 I guess the live people interested me 

more than the dead ones, though it was impressive.

 A quick stop to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. "Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World."

Subway Sketching, 

The Red Line from Cambridge back to Boston.

 Thanks for browsing through my sketches.

I wish you the happy pursuit of your passions

& pastimes in 2019.