Sketching Life, Death, Re-Birth

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Is been cool and drizzly, misty and rainy for almost a week now. Not a terribly cheerful start to May.  I've been spending a lot of time in the garden despite the dampness and a little less time sketching, especially since mist and rain make it difficult to take a sketchbook outside.

Today I concentrated on what was at my feet and that was some gorgeous Turkey Tail Fungus. I love this stuff. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm wondering if I can bring some inside and dry it or preserve it in some way. Its concentric bands of color and texture are indeed very reminiscent of a turkey's tail, thus the common name for it.

The juxtaposition in this spread of a dead tree limb decaying under the fungus and the fresh new crab apple blossoms is a perfect little microcosm of the entire Universe, life, death, decay, re-birth. I'm always amazed at the deep and profound truths that Nature simply scatters round us all the time.

White gel pen at the end helped to accentuate the light bands of color. The flowing wet in wet background was so fun to do and reminded me how versatile the Stillman & Birn Zeta mixed media paper really is.

The blue behind the blossoms is Winsor & Newton's special edition Sapphire Phthalo mixed with some Daler-Rowney ProWhite. The Sapphire Phthalo is such a beautiful jewel-like color it's a shame it's just a limited edition. I'm going to have to continue to snatch up tubes wherever I can find them.

I'm hoping for sunnier weather but it looks like I may have another several days to wait.  I just ordered a very intriguing watercolor sketchbook but I'm determined not to begin it until my Gazara Papel watercolor sketchbook is filled. Hoping that will happen in the not too distant future. If the sun would shine I'd be able to get out to the parks and really sink into some landscape work.

Sketching Squirrel

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You see them everyday. They're funny, annoying, and they're everywhere. One of my New Year's rituals is to be aware of the first animal I see on New Year's Day, (other than my pets) and take that animal as my totem, or guide animal for the year.

This year it was a common gray squirrel. I was frankly a little disappointed.  Other year's I've seen a red tailed hawk, a black horse, a white tailed deer, but this year just a squirrel.

Then  I do what I always do, and that is look up the symbolic meaning of the animal and boy did I get a surprise! The squirrel is a power animal, with many, many lesson to teach us!

I will have much to think about and learn from this year with Squirrel as my guide. You can read about Squirrels symbolic meaning HERE.

My new sketchbook to start 2015 is a Stillman & Birn, 5.5 x 8.5 Zeta, with beautiful smooth, heavy weight, mixed media paper. It's such a great sketchbook to work in because it really does handle all media. It's not the same as good watercolor paper, but it does take watercolors remarkably well.Plus its smooth surface is beautiful for all kinds of pens and markers. My new favorite watercolors (and maybe my all time favorite from now on) are the new QoR watercolors from Golden.  I like them for their radiant, clarity and juicy pigment saturation. They also have an excellent "flow". I'm not really sure how else to describe that but the paints move and flow in such a beautiful way on  practically every surface I've used them on.

My new pen of choice (and again I *might* have found the ONE) is a Platinum Carbon fountain pen, using Platinum Carbon ink.  This is not an expensive pen. I think I paid $12 for it, bought the converter ($10) so I can fill it from an ink bottle and not have to buy expensive cartridges, and bought a bottle of carbon ink ($20).

I m so surprised at this pen's versatility. It's really quite elegant, especially so for a $12 pen!  The body is long and tapered, similar to a paint brush, which allows yo to hold it further back and loosely which helps loosen up your mark making and allows for lots of expressive qualities.  The nib, is also very responsive (though not a flex nib it actually has a lot of movement to it) and you can turn the pen over and draw easily with the other side of the nib for very thin lines.

The carbon ink is very waterproof and dries very quickly a big plus when you want to put watercolors over your ink work. The only thing I don't like is the plastic cap which does not post the the end of the pen. I always have to be sure I don't drop it and lose it. Other than that I'm really loving this pen!