I started a tiny sketchbook on Friday since I often carry a pretty tiny purse. I'd like to do more sketching my daily life. I've been using the Handbook watercolor books, but this was my first not w/c paper since they got bought out by Strathmore. The paper quality is definitely down, but I liked my first sketch once I added more paint. It bled through a little with the pen work, but not too much. The second sketch I did with a felt tip instead of a fountain pen, and I I had no bleed through. For this tiny size I might try one of the softcover Stillman and Birn, but for my bigger sketchbooks I still like the hardback nature of the Handbook watercolor, and I love having the pocket in the back.

Because the sketchbook was in my purse this morning, I did a second quick forest sketch, the one with the Pigma Graphic 1 felt tip, and it was fun to pause for not too long on my forest walk and do a quick sketch. Hopefully this will get me back in the habit.

On Friday I met my sketching friend Libby at Dixon for Food Truck Friday My favorite food truck Flipside Asia was there, so I made a point of getting to it. I did the superfast sketch of the small girl statue as a warm up and then moved to. my bigger book. Of course I liked the fast, looser sketch of the girl herself better, but I ended up liking the conservatory and the deep shadows of the full page version too. I started both with a fountain pen using KawekoParadise Blue ink, which is my favorite funky color lately. It's water soluble and melts into the paint, which is fun and loose. Then I went and got meatballs in an Indian marsala sauce to eat in the gardens with Libby. A lovely day.

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Memphis Botanic Gardens yesterday. Because of a rain out last month, Trollfest coincided with our morning there, and it ended up being fantastic. The garden is big enough for folks to spread out, so it wasn't too crowded. I headed straight for the iconic red bridge in the Japanese garden that generations of kids have had their photos made on (including my sister and me). I just filled my new Art Toolkit palette and put in a record number of greens: Sap green from both Sennelier (cooler and more opaque) and Windsor and Newton (warm and translucent), my favorite W&N green gold, a bright, cool Sennelier Pthalo light green, and a darker, less saturated granulating green from Daniel Smith called Green apatite. I'm always drawn to the trees, so I decided to lean into greens in the new palette more than any other color, and I had fun mixing them together and with ultramarine or burnt umber to get even more shades.

The festival brought food trucks, and I had a messy but delicious duck confit sandwich with mango chutney, and afterwards my friend Libby suggested a walk around the gardens. We did a wide loop, ending up back near the lake, when I spotted the Mississippi Wildlife Rehab set up, also there for the festival, with people holding hawks, snakes, and OWLS. It was utter magic to get to stand next to first an Eastern screech owl (so tiny!) and then a full grown barred owl. Both had lost sight in one eye and were unable to hunt and therefore not able to be released back into the wild. Their handlers spend time with them at the center and occasionally bring them out for educational events. I stood just watching for a while and eventually got out my sketchbook. I was standing up so kept it simple with just pen and ink, but what an immense treat to get to sketch them both close up. Owls are my favorite wildlife.

Libby had gone back to the lake to finish her sketch from earlier, and I rejoined her and did a watercolor of the second scene that had caught my eye that day. I loved the scraggly trees towering over the pavilion, looking the other way in the Japanese garden. I need to get back over here and draw more often. What a truly fantastic day.

I'm working on a companion piece to my first snow tree, but it's really slow carving with all those tiny branches. I can work on it for a couple of hours in the morning when the light is best on my print table and I'm fresh. Then I do some other work later in the day. I won't be able to proof it for several more days yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I'm drawing out a spring tree print with leaves on all those branches, which won't be fast (I mean, what carving is?), but which should move at a much better pace than this current one.

You can also see my muse watching me hopefully and waiting for a trip to the dog park.

I had a crazy week last week, and it was good to get a day where I could carve in the morning, take a nap, and head to the forest for a late afternoon ramble and sketching trip. The wildflowers are almost gone, but there are still lovely ones popping up. I'm also thinking my way through a new tree series (starting with the snow tree print I just finished), and it's been fun to walk and look at trees and ponder new ideas. Henry is always up for a walk and a poke around the forest, so we both had a great time.

I've been really busy with family business lately and not getting much art time, but I am taking breaks to get out in the sunshine and enjoy spring. It refills the cup. Henry and I took a lovely afternoon hiding deep in the old forest so I could sketch and enjoy the wildflowers, and I decided to put him in the foreground of this first one. I did a number of sketches of Mr. Darcy leaning against my knees or sleeping on my feet, and the intimacy of those sketches makes me happy. Here I had looped Henry's leash over my boot while I made a mess of sketching some trillium. I did this second sketch after, which I was really pleased with. It much better captured the full joy of that afternoon.

The next day my sister Erin suggested an impromptu visit to the family farm to pick the daffodils that have naturalized over the 19th century home site out there (the house was gone before I was born). She and her boys met me out there. They all moved crazy fast, and I got Wesley (the smaller one bending over) too big, but it was fun to catch that moment on the fly. I stayed after and finished the background. Always draw the bits that are going to wander off first.

Yesterday I went back to the park after spending most of my day doing business-y things instead of making art. It felt lovely to walk and sketch. This tree has been calling my name for several weeks now, and I enjoyed settling in to sketch it.

I've been carving this one for weeks. With lots of interruptions, but it's still the most painstaking, intricate print I've worked on since the seagull murmuration for my show at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. Fortunately for me, this one is 9x12" instead of 18x24". I've enjoying having something to dive into for an hour at a time while I juggle a ton of other responsibilities this month, and I finally have gotten it to the place where I could pull a print and see what it looks like. I had to get the entire carving roughed in so I wouldn't lose the delicate drawing on the block into a big smear of ink. I'm cleaning up and thinning out very slowly so I don't overshoot, so there's not any dramatic difference to see the biggest clean up will show in the path, but I'm still working on that bit. 

This is from a photo I took during Memphis's unusual, actual snow this past winter. Usually we're right on the ice line, but for once we got a fluffy, photogenic kind of snow. This must be the fourth print I've done of my favorite tree over the years, alongside who knows how many sketches, and I just couldn't resist her beauty all dressed up for winter. I should be done in a few more proofs with smaller and smaller changes as I go along. Soon...

The weather has been utterly gorgeous this week, and I'm trying to get out and take advantage of it with sketching walks and patio meals. I'm low energy this week, but wandering around the park with a sketchbook is just right, and Henry and I have been over several different days. Such pleasure.

I had a lovely farm day a while ago before the crazy cold rolled in, and I did a couple of sketches I forgot to scan in (it's been a busy month). I love the winter green cover of the fields against the bare trees. And later a cardinal posed for me in the tree near the bird feeder. I tested out a new blue watercolor marker from Windsor and Newton for the sky. I love the juiciness of the color.

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.

Henry and I went out the other day to take advantage of a gorgeous, sunny afternoon at Elmwood Historic Cemetery, one of my favorite longtime sketching spots. I hadn't really registered this hobbit-looking grave before and was completely charmed by the hillside entrance and round door.

After a bit we walked on to one of the many stunning trees out there. I got a box of Windsor and Newton watercolor markers recently. I'd had a single blue one years ago that I loved for its broad tip and its lush color, so I took a chance on a box. I tried both greens on this piece. Greens are tricky, and these both felt a little too chemically, though my choice of Paradise Blue ink to start with in a fountain pen  probably pushed them even further toward the cool end. The tree has some gorgeous blue undertones I was trying to catch, and it is always fun to play with different colors. I'm happy with bits of this but not the overall color tone.

I went back to my regular black pen and watercolor for the third sketch. It's a closeup of a magnolia I'd spotted as we started out but wanted to walk for a bit before settling down to sketch. I love all the huge old trees out there.

Finally here's another tree sketch from a newish greenway down by the river the other day. This is grey ink with a dip pen and watercolor on top. It seems to thematically go with this entry, so I tucked it on in. I'm trying to branch out and explore some newer places this year, and I really enjoyed this quiet walk with the levee in the background (the yellow band behind the trees).