I was having a run around day a couple of weeks ago, and it was sunny and halfway warm for the end of January. I felt like stopping at my favorite deck and having a chai. I had just started a new sketchbook, back to my old favorite Handbook after trying something less satisfying, and I also had a new yellow watercolor marker. I did the sketch above with the watercolor and then did a second one of umbrellas and the sycamore across the street that I love. My fountain pens hadn't really worked on the paper in the previous book, so I'm enjoying getting back to them. And sketching a treat slows me down to both appreciate and remember it.

A couple of days ago I got my favorite Lucy J's bakery croissant at the farmers market and came home for second tea. I hadn't been sketching in a few days, so it was nice to take a slow Saturday morning and enjoy both the sketching and the croissant.

I keep thinking about food trucks lately, ever since I sketched one in Little Rock on my way to my mini museum tour. They're colorful (often) and interesting visually and fun. I had done a couple for the M is for Memphis book too. I'm not sure where this is going, but I want to get out, sketch a few, and sample their wares in the new year. I had sketched Byway Coffee briefly in the Winter Arts parking lot early in December, then they they showed up again in Overton Park. I went back from my walk to get my full sketching kit and did a color version.

Before the stomach bug took me out of action for a few days, I had a great Saturday. I went to the farmers market early and snagged a parking space with a great view of the Flipside Asia food truck, my favorite one in town. Their yellow curry is my favorite, and I buy several at a time for the freezer. I've been jonesing to sketch more food trucks, and theirs, with that gorgeous big green dot, is one I had definitely wanted to capture. Sadly I closed my book too soon on a cold morning, which retards the drying, and the side got a little muddy. I'll probably take another run at it sometime. Frustrating when I was so happy just as I finished it, but there you go. Art out in the world has a life of its own.

Then later that day I met my sketching buddy Christina at Crosstown. They hang lights in the main atrium at the holidays, and it is gorgeous. I'd been eyeing the disco ball and wanting to try my hand. We got lunch from Global Cafe and carried it up several levels to a quiet table where we could drink in some sunshine and have a good catch up. Such pleasure. I ended up doing two sketches of the lights from different vantage points. I managed to leave my taller book in the car so I contented myself with the more horizontal format. It's good to mix things up sometimes, and it especially worked on the bottom sketch.

We've been making the rounds in Washington, visiting favorite restaurants and bookstores while I'm here. We took the girls to lunch at Slough Foods, a charming spot on a slough with outdoor seating and fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches. A few days later we visited the LaConner Brewing Co., which has a great rotating selection of hard ciders, and I tried their pizza for the first time, which was excellent. I've eaten more cheese in the last week than I have in the last month, but that's what vacation is for, I guess. 

We also stopped at a fun nursery with extensive grounds, an antique schoolhouse building, and a decidedly UK feeling gift shop. I'm still thinking about the Aran sweaters there, but I confined myself to sketching. Yesterday was two rainy soccer games, cheering on the girls, and hanging out with family. It was lovely. I'm feeling rested and ready to dive back into shows when I get home. 

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the neighborhood Art Walk on Saturday. There were crafts and art and dogs and food trucks, and a good time was had by all. I got to sketch this fantastic food truck first and then had kebabs and grilled veggies and rice from them after, hanging out  at the festivities. Henry made 25 new friends while I sketched. He's my super extrovert dog.

The food truck is my favorite sketch I've done in a while, and it was my second of the day. I did a starter sketch in walnut ink with a dip pen since I'm trying to pay attention to Inktober this year, and I've been remembering lately how much fun a dip pen is.

Henry is perfect for Inktober with my fountain pen with the fude nib that has a nice dark permanent black ink in it (also the base of the food truck sketch), and I've paired that with the warm grey Pentel brush pen for years. It's a satisfying combination, so I've been sketching Henry a lot at the start of the month. He is still periodically challenging on a leash (walking companion is his secondary job description), but he is absolutely holding up his end of the bargain on being my muse.

It took me getting to Washington to get to a scanner and clean up my St. Louis sketches. I love to draw there and did some smaller, faster sketches as well as full watercolors. This first one is walnut ink with a dip pen of an Osage Orange tree. They always grow in such fascinating shapes.

I also got a fantastic blueberry/lemon curd crepe from a food truck creperie that flashed me back to Paris. I loved both the food and the fun little bus, so I did a sketch to remember.

There was also a great book signing at the graphic bookstore Betty’s Books. Beautifully they got in an art hero of mine Lucy Knisley. I found her first graphic memoir An Age of License some years ago, and it (plus my first Ben Hatke book found at the same time) made me want to include more storytelling in my work, which had been purely landscape up until that point. She had a huge influence on my work, and I trace a direct line back from her book to doing several of my own, even if they’re quite different in feel. It was fantastic to hear her talk, meet her in person, and see her delightful hand painted cat dress.

One more lovely day in town was revisiting the St. Louis Art Museum, another favorite place. They had a Vuillard I don’t remember from before on view this time, which makes sense because it’s on cardboard and probably needs to rest for preservation purposes in between times out in the light. I love his patterned interiors and interlocking shapes and had fun doing a sketch while standing in front of it.

I've been a lot at home lately working slowly on the last couple of Rowan Oak prints and fighting a bit more long Covid fatigue. But this week I got out a couple of lovely times and hopefully am on the upswing again. Sunday Christina and I went sketching in the neighborhood, an old Masonic temple building that now houses a restaurant. The weather has been perfect, so that night I took myself out for a patio dinner of fish tacos and sweet potato fries with Henry and my book and sketchbook. My friend Chrissie says to always get the pink drink -- just have a celebration. So I did.

Then today after doing some errands with my Dad I still had energy to go see the new shows at Dixon. They're great. As I was heading to leave it started raining, and then it just poured. It was gorgeous, and there was a handy bench on the covered porch, so I settled in to draw and wait it out. I'm grateful to my friend Elizabeth, who started the Memphis Urban Sketchers, for training me to carry a sketchbook. I sometimes get caught without one, but I'm almost always glad when I have it along.

I looked back at my Eclipse sketches this week while I was working on a print from them, and this page looked a little bare. I also wanted to keep a souvenir of the cool Eclipse glasses we all got, so I ended up doing a small scrapbook page to go with the sketch. I love the idea of collage, but I’m terrible at it. My attempts always look like a 4th grade art project gone wrong. But sometimes I want to preserve a special bit or piece from a day out or a trip.

Since I was in that mode, I also added my “number being served” ticket to my County Clerk’s office sketch. The number I pulled at 8:03 when the office had opened at 8….

I’m a bit more prone to do this kind of thing when I travel and pick up ticket stubs or other cool souvenirs. did a couple at my WAMA show to celebrate both a gorgeous bunch of tulips from a friend and also some King cake.

This last one is my favorite, but that might be mostly because of the King cake, which was delicious.

I'd been working on family finances and papers all week, so when my friend Christina suggested a sketching lunch on Friday at Crosstown, I was all in. I mean, ALL in. We ate at Global Cafe, one of the truly unique places in Memphis, and I tried the plaintain soup for the first time (delicious) as well as the Sudanese mint limeade. Bam. I mean. So, so good. With herbs and nubby bits and not crazy sweet. It was delicious as well as fun to draw.

Crosstown has been good to me lately. I did One week, 100 people on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, and Crosstown is an easy place to hang out and sketch people. I'm there a lot anyway, picking up prescriptions, picking up bread, and taking a walk indoors when the air pollution is bad, which it has been a lot of this spring, sadly.

I used a long skinny sketchbook I'd bought several years ago on a whim but never even opened. It feels too long for landscape, so I decided to try it for the people challenge. It easily fit into my small crossbody bag, and I made it to 98 people and two dogs. Since dogs are our better angels, I consider that I actually exceeded the assignment. I rarely do challenges, figuring that I have enough deadlines in my normal work, but I've done this once before. It's short, and it's good to get me out of my landscape rut to draw people. Excellent practice.

What I found this time was that I deeply enjoyed having a tiny sketchbook to whip out whenever I was in public. I've gravitated toward doing full watercolors the last few years, and I love doing them, but I'm less likely to sketch often since it takes time. I decided to buy myself a tiny sketchbook in a more traditional shape and keep it and one pen (maybe with the brush pen added for tone that I used in some of the 100 people sketches) and try to do at least one super quick drawing every time I leave the house. The bottom sketch is my first in the new small book, and I'm excited about the new practice. We'll see how well I can keep up the good intentions.

I've been getting back into printmaking, which is slow to have something to show, but I've also been doing smaller things over the past week or so. One is finding the best baklava I've had (by a lot) on this continent, and doing a little sketch of it in Diamine Ancient Copper ink plus watercolor. Sometimes the ink gets too hot, but sometimes it's really right and rich, and it felt right here. If you're in striking range, getting down to the Mediterranean Bakery and More market in Southaven, MS, is so, so worth it. Ridiculously worth it.

Speaking of worth it, I also took a mini, free online illustration portfolio class with Mike Lowery, an illustrator I follow on IG and admire. I generally dislike online classes, but this one was in easy bite-sized chunks, and we did one achievable project. He walked us through both Photoshop and Procreate for adjusting a basic on-paper sketch, and I learned how to color in layers. Usually I just clean up finished watercolors. I mostly like to work on paper, but this is a good, small set of starter skills I'm happy to have. The project was to make a sticker, and I haven't ordered them yet (I'm still tinkering with the lettering on the Woman's Best Friend one), but I plan to. (I mean, how did men get dogs and women got stuck with diamonds?? What a racket. I'm making a play for the dogs.)