I've got a new green ink that I'm in love with. So many of them are harsh and cool and unnatural (rather like a lot of the new light bulbs), and they don't fit the landscape drawings I do. This ink is light for writing, but it's warm and leafy feeling and perfect to go with watercolors. I've so enjoyed drawing with it and having just a hint of the green line work show through in the finished sketch. 

I'm having such a good time that I even did a page in my sketchbook about it. It's an ink made by Parker but with an Asian name. There are a lot of colors, and given the richness and subtlety of this one, I want to try one of their grays next. 

Here are a couple of other recent watercolors I used it with. 

North Dakota was crazy. We drove through blowing snow, and there was a gale force wind that made it difficult to walk, let alone get out of the car without the doors blowing off. So our stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park was truncated. I did two quick sketches from the front seat (of a stationary car this time) and called it a day. 

It was much nicer in Montana. We had a sun filled, end of day stop at Pompey's Pillar, named for Sacajawea's son. It's a huge rock formation right beside the Yellowstone River, and Clark carved his name and the date into it. It's the only physical remnant of the Lewis and Clark expedition. I loved being there, and it was gorgeous, quiet park to enjoy at the end of a long day's drive. 

I was almost out of both time and water in my brush pen, so after sketching the view from the top, I did a super quick outline of the rock itself. 

Then when we got here, I kept thinking about it. I'm working on my watercolor this spring and summer, and I decided to try a 12" one. That doesn't sound large, but I've been working 6x8" in watercolor, so it was a big jump and a fun experiment. I used both my sketch and a photo to work from. It was fun to play a little. 

There was one more page of little road sketches that didn't make it in the post with the others. And that's the full set of sketches I did coming across the country. Both years I've said I would sketch every state, and both years by Idaho I'm tired and don't care anymore, and the little leg of the state we go through passes by so quickly that I miss it. Sorry, Idaho. Maybe next year. 

I've been hanging my show and doing all the scrambling around with that, so I'm behind scanning and putting up my sketches. Here are a pair I did in Overton Park. I've got a new green ink I'm excited about. It's not that cool, unnatural road sign ink. It's warmer and more like foliage, so I wanted to test it out in the forest. I've really been enjoying sketching with fountain pens lately. This is a nice addition to my kit.

I like to have special days and memories in my sketch journal, and it was my birthday last week. My friend Melissa Bridgman left these lovely flowers on my doorstep in one of her handmade vases (I love polka dots!), and they were so lovely I had to draw them. I also had cake at Muddy's (my very favorite) with a marvelous friend, and it was fun to have both of those occasions in here. Plus I get to enjoy cake again later without the calories if it's in my sketchbook. I get a great deal of pleasure from dessert sketches. There was a creme brulee in Asheville years ago that lives on my in my memory and my journal because I was so pleased with the sketch.

celebrated her new books. It's a great idea. But the one I came home with was for Mary Laura Philpott's book Penguins with People Problems. The book is hilarious, and I loved the poster that went with it, so festive and full of old school letterpress whimsy. It made me dream about one day having a published book of my own to do a letterpress poster for.

I had gone hoping to meet Mary Laura, because she introduced me to my very favorite podcast, #amwriting with Jess and KJ. She was a guest, talking about building a relationship with your favorite book stores even before you have a published book out there to promote, and Parnassus shared the episode on Facebook. I've been listening my way through the back issues ever since. Jessica Lahey and KJ Dell'Antonia are both successful writers sharing how they get their work done, how they pitch and get writing jobs, how they work with editors and agents, and how they make space for creativity and reading in their busy lives. It's been inspirational as I work on Mr. Darcy's Odyssey, but I'm also learning lots about this whole new world of publishing. Plus they're good friends and delightful people and make you feel as if you're sitting at the kitchen table with them talking. I can't recommend it enough.

Mary Laura is also delightful. She happened to be there, and I was glad to get to say thank you face to face. I've been reading her witty book ever since, a page or two at a time, so I can keep it going longer. She was kind to me as an aspiring author and gave me one welcome piece of advice (that I don't HAVE to be on Twitter if I'm already on Facebook and Instagram, even though lots of publisher folks are there as well). That was good to hear from a social media professional.

This turned into a total fan girl post, but all three of these amazing women are well worth going fan girl about. If you're interested in books and writing, please look all of them up. And by all means, stop in Parnassus next time you're in the Nashville area. You won't be sorry.

I made it! Only because I had two different stints in waiting rooms last week. The #oneweek100people challenge could not have been better timed for me. Quite often I'm working at home by myself and see a couple of people, tops. But this particular week I was up and out, and I added in a park trip and a little sketching in the passenger seat one evening to make sure I got my quota, since I was so close. It was fun to have a challenge to mix up my sketching a bit.

I kept them all pretty small and quick, but I did one longer one to celebrate #100. I figured it would be right to end with "my" special person...

There's an Urban Sketchers challenge to draw 100 people in one week this week. In a stroke of good luck, it is also my week to sit for extended periods in waiting rooms twice this week. I'm delighted to have a challenge to make the time pass and feel productive. I've been wanting to practice people more for my illustration work anyway, so I went for it this morning. I managed to make it to 54 in one day. I asked Elizabeth Alley if that was cheating, and she said, no, it's winning! So yay.

I did all of these with my latest favorite pen for sketching (except for my lovely Pelican I'm using for the Mr. Darcy book, which lives on my desk now) -- a Lamy safari pen with smokey gray ink inside. The darker, wider bits are a brush pen with some diluted Sumi ink inside.