Some combination of using a dip pen with an open ink pot and sketching out in the field with wind and/or uncertain conditions means that my sketchbook usually has more blots and smudges than I had originally hoped. That's the case for both of these.

I went back to sketch my tree the next day, with the destruction work still ongoing, and I chose a spot at a different angle with the Higbee memorial in the foreground instead of the back. This is still the Inferno ink, that felt right for the moment, and a snub nosed dip pen. I definitely dropped one enormous blob of ink toward the bottom right, but otherwise I managed to control things pretty well. It felt important to sit with her through that process.

Then the heat dome finally broke (50 straight days over 90 degrees for Memphis, second only to the crazy summer of 1980), and the air pollution mercifully cleared out, and for the first time in weeks I felt I could sit out on a patio without risking all the health conditions that pollution brings on. I celebrated with a last minute stop at one of my favorite local restaurants on the way home from picking Henry up at daycare. He's a lovely plus one. And fortunately I had my sketching gear in the car, not just my tiny purse sketchbook, since I hadn't thought to bring a book for company. It felt better to sketch anyway. I didn't dive into watercolor, and since I was thinking just line I went ahead with the Diamine Ancient Copper ink that I'm always drawn to but that turns into a hot mess very quickly with paint on top. I really do love it, but I have to pick my places. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening all the way around.