Sidestreet

I got a 15 minute break this afternoon between errands, and stopped to try out a new drawing pen by Prismacolor (heads up, people -- THEY make a 0.05 in sepia!) in the Handbook Journal. I parked in an attorney's empty parking lot, directly under the Do Not Park Here Unless You Are Visiting This Attorney sign and sketched the patio of Sidestreet Tavern over the top of the fence. (Shown darkened here, just to view a bit better.) For some reason I find sunbrellas compelling ... maybe I need to do an actual PAINTING of them. Novel idea.

Okay, back on track ... so then I took it home and added watercolor washes ...

... okay. This particular brand of sketchbook really ISN'T for me -- for watercolor at least. Big yuk on the colors and the wimpy values I get with this paper! I just work too wet and with too many glazes.*

Later this afternoon I picked up a couple of pieces of #140 Arches hot pressed and one piece of #90 hot pressed (just for variety, you know) and am going to be sewing something up. Quickly. Toot-sweet, don't you know. I have an outing planned ...
:-)

* I ended up trying to work in some darks with my handy-dandy carbon pencils... WAY overworked.

**Uh, another note. Why in the world did I sketch in the patio light on a pole? Sigh. I knew as soon as I did it that I'd made a mistake. If I was a clever Photoshop-er I would have taken it out of the scan and you would never have known.

ISO Perfection

A mandarin orange, one of two that I picked up yesterday at the Fresh Market. Either that, or a lumpy orange circle. You choose.

I'm busy searching for the perfect sketchbook for an outing and thought I'd go ahead and give the Handbook Journal (that so many of you love) a try. Not what I'm looking for, unfortunately. The paper just doesn't stand up to the abuse I offer, although I love the 5 1/2" square size. Hmmmm... just the size to use if I decide to bind my own ....

I really like all that nice space out to the side of the orange (or lumpy circle, whichever you chose.) It looks like a nice place to jot down all those complex physics equations that rattle around in my brain. Or grocery lists. Or describe the weather. Whatever -- Funny thing is, this book makes me want to use it to sketch people -- it feels friendly, and not precious, precious. Just not right for my outing, I don't think.

For a beautiful INSPIRATIONAL sketchbook video, go visit Cathy Johnson's web site and find her youtube videos of her April/May sketchbook -- these are really wonderful, and I'm so thankful that Kate shared them with us!