House Made of Straw

I have a bird's nest given to me by a friend who cut the entire branch so the nest would stay intact. So much fun using line and tone with this! I usually let the first drawing on a page dictate what the rest of the drawings on the page will be. If I do a series of three, want to guess where I'm going with this?

There is a phrase, "a house of straw", meaning that it won't take much to topple it down. Well, for 12 days I have stuck to nothing but black and white ink drawings for Inktober. Today I did my ink, but I just HAD to capture the color out there before it all blew away! So I toppled.


I drove to our Cinema in town where I know that the entire parking lot is ablaze with red trees. Beautiful to look at, but not quite what I wanted after all. Then I came around the corner and there in all its glory was a white dumpster, a yellow fire hydrant and above all, a group of trees showing all the fall colors!
It had rained earlier and the colors reflected for a while in the puddles and wet pavement. Perfect!

Inspired by the workbench

Inktober, 2015, Day 11: As I entered the garage today, my husband's workbench was back lit and the Kleenex box with tissue all  fluffed out caught my eye. Then there were his safety glasses and fishing hats hung on a peg, his 25 foot measuring tape on the window sill and an old "For Sale sign".

Gary's corner

Old fishing headgear and black safety glasses
Lawnmower upgrades for cutting our grasses
Pulleys and dead bolts and sprockets and springs
These are a few of his .............................

Haha, gotcha!

Sipping Tea by North Light

It was a dark and stormy day......

I wanted to sketch by natural north light, so I took advantage of my remedy for a gloomy afternoon; tea and cookies! After I had heated the water, brewed the tea and had taken a few sips, and ripped the red strip off the package of cookies, I realized that it was already 3:45 and the light was going fast.

So I grabbed my Lamy pen and waterbrush and got to work. No time for a bite of gingerbread cookies just yet!

4:28 pm-These cookies are yummy and the tea is still piping hot. Sip, sip, Ahhh!

4:28 pm.-Sipping tea by north light

Couldn't find Schnitzel

Ahhh. The last day of my "Julie Andrews" curse. (Let's just hope Dick Van Dyke doesn't start up with Chim-Chim-Cher-ee!)

I present to you: Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String!

These are the kind of packages my grandmothers would send with gifts, cards, clothes, puzzles, coloring books, dolls, and homemade cookies in them. To keep things steady, they would pop up a pan of popcorn and use that to fill in the voids. When you opened the package, you saved the string, carefully folded the paper for later use and inhaled a big whiff of popcorn! (I wonder if anyone ever used real peanuts?)

Thank you, everyone from Instagram and who commented through email and here on my blog with great ideas from "My Favorite Things".  At the risk of going insane with that tune in my head 24-7, there actually are quite a few of those that I just may end up coming back to before the end of Inktober!

Cursed by Julie Andrews

A bright copper kettle

Okay, I've succumbed. Yesterday, I unwittingly got bewitched by the lyrics to "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. I accidentally sketched raindrops on roses. Now I can't get that song out of my head!

Look what it has caused me to do for Inktober, Day 8!

I realize the curse will not be lifted until I draw a third item mentioned in the song, turn around under the full moon with my arms outspread and shout "Julie Andrews!" three times at the top of my voice. What do you suggest I draw for Inktober 10?

Note: I will not draw a dog biting, a bee stinging or a sad face. Other than that, I'm open.

Sketching while holding an umbrella

I have the Sistene Umbrella. Not exactly like this, but similar.

It was wet out this morning and as I looked through my studio window, I saw the last roses of summer drooping in the rain. So I grabbed my umbrella, Lamy pen, waterbrush and sketchbook for today's Inktober.

Inktober, Day 7

Oh, my word! I just realized I drew raindrops on roses! (Got way too carried away with the raindrops.)
No, I will NOT be uploading whiskers on kittens tomorrow!

Funny anecdote: One of my Instagram friends wrote under the photo on Instragram:
        Hahahahaha, but that (those) are my favorite things........;)

Having fun with Inktober

This being the first week of Inktober, I thought I would offer a few more bits of encouragement to my students and sketching friends. It's not too late to join in! Catch up and keep going!

If you feel too much stress committing to a daily sketch for 31 days (it's still only one day at a time!) how about committing to once a week? or every Saturday and Sunday (that would be 10 for the month)?

Jake Parker, the founder of the Inktober Initiative, has some good suggestions and all sorts of helpful pages on pens, ink, how to draw. He says:

"Note: you can do it daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better."--Jake Parker

Here's my sketchbook with Days 4, 5, & 6 for 2015. I upload each day on my Instagram

One way that I'm pretty sure will get you started is to buy a new pen/ink/sketchbook. You know you want to play with it! Ready? Set? GO!

Virtual Paintout, Flower Market in Manila

Dangwa Flower Market on Dimasalang Rd, Manila, Phillipines- Google Street View here

I drew with my twig, Chinese ink and watercolor pencils in the Perfect Sketchbook.

It's fun to compare this one with a previous effort in Bangladesh, virtually of course. Here I used India Ink, twig, watercolor and white Signo pen.
Bill Guffey hosts The Virtual Paintout online, where you can visit a different location each month through Google Peg Man, walking the streets (virtually) and sketching. Then you upload your image and URL to share it with the other virtual painters around the world.

Update 10/5/15 My photo is now published on the Virtual Paintout website!

Inkwell? Nope!

Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Well, why is a pencil sharpener like an inkwell?

Just had a lot of fun shopping at the art store and got the Dux Glass Inkwell Pencil Sharpener and a Pilot disposable fountain pen. It's Inktober after all!

Got mine in Kirkland at An Artful Touch.

Inktober 2015

Whoa! Almost forgot! Today is Day 1 of Inktober 2015. I'm going for the marathon-a drawing a day for the entire month of October. I enjoyed this so much last year that I want to do it again.

What's Inktober, you ask?  Follow the link and scroll down for the very lenient rules and an illustrated list of ink pens for your drawings and sketches. Come on, it's going to be fun!