Carve December Day 6

I don’t know why it never occurred to me to draw a partridge in a pear tree. While I was growing up, we had these partridges and pears that we put on the Christmas tree every year. My mom had picked them up from Sears “on the Boulevard,” which was the flagship store in Philadelphia. I don’t remember which Christmas they first appeared, but I remember hanging the pears on the tree and using the wires built into the partridges legs to attach them to the tree. Most of the time, they would flip over and hang upside down so it took some creativity and multiple branches to get them to stay upright.

It’s funny what simple ornaments that you hang on the tree every year that invoke the strongest memories. Christmas is a time of traditions and customs. Like family gatherings, decorating the tree, making cookies, shopping for and wrapping presents. Holiday music and favorite holiday movies and big meals and celebrations.

And a simple partridge in a pear tree is a traditional member of the annual cast characters that pop up during the season

Carve December Day 4

Day 4’s prompt is “little.” I decided to make a little kitty based on one of my Kringle Kitty designs. I winged it, drawing the image directly on the Speedy Carve. The nice thing about these small carvings is they don’t take a lot of time. The hardest part of the whole process is getting past what I want to carve.

I used a small piece of Speedy Carve. I carved the image first and then I decided to remove the background. After stamping it a few times, I cut back the shape a little to minimize the carved background.

This was a delicate piece and the cutter slipped a few times so I had to make adjustments. I try to work slow but occasionally I knick the rubber which means that I have to make adjustments, especially on these smaller pieces.

The small stamps are really fun to make. If you think these are difficult, they really aren’t. The main ingredient is patience and not being hung up on being perfect. During December, they are especially useful as a meditative practice before I get to work on other things, like commissions.

Ktingle Kitty Stamp

Carve December Day 3

Dotty is today’s prompt. I chose my design to give myself some practice with circles. I could have used a punch tool if I wanted perfect circles. But looking over the total pattern as a whole, I really like the wonkiness of the carved circles. They look like wet malformed snow flakes, lol. I may have to import this pattern into Procreate and use it for designs.

That is what’s really nice about Carve December. I can use my stamps to create all sorts of patterns and designs. Something to keep in mind for January after things calm down.

Carve December Day 2

Here is my Day 2 Carve December stamp. The prompt is “metal” and my husband thought a chain shape would be cool. I sketched my shape first in pencil. The speedy carve was a weird shape that I utilized and incorporated into my design.

I realized, after I finished carving it, that I could “link it” to create a long chain pattern, which could come in handy for larger patterns.

Carve December Day 2

Carve December

It’s December 1 and it’s the beginning of a new month long challenge.

I like this challenge because I get to carve stamps and use them to create some fun patterns. Last year I made random Christmas cards out of bits and pieces of my patterns and stamps. Everyone received their own “one of a kind” art for the 2021 holidays. One of these years I want to carve the entire card.

Today’s stamp took me a while because I couldn’t get past the prompt until I decided to just take a random piece of “speedy carve” and just do the first thing that came into my head. in this case, a random feather shape. The prompt is gentle and this was the only thing that I could think of.

A Sunday Morning in November

Today, John and I decided to get out of the house. I have been working on some ornaments over the past couple of days and John installed some sun shades yesterday for our patio. We really didn’t veg out too much yesterday so this morning we just sat outside and enjoyed our morning coffee. We try to leave the weekends open to just relax and, gasp! do absolutely nothing. After coffee and breakfast, we decided to get out of the house. We had no plan in mind until we drove past a new local coffee shop, just a few minutes from the house. After deciding to pop in to see if it was open yet, we were surprised to find that it was open! Apparently the shop is open every day from 7-1 every day and I was ecstatic because now we have two local shops to go to for coffee that are both in Jensen Beach and within biking distance.

After getting two iced coffees, we found a table in the shade. (Almost all the tables are under trees and in the shade, which is nice.) This shop is just across the road from the Indian River Lagoon, and beyond that, Hutchinson’s Island and the Atlantic Ocean. We couldn’t see any of the above because of all of the vegetation but we did enjoy the benefits of a lovely sea breeze.

I have been trying to get out of the studio and back in the habit of outdoor sketching so this seemed like a great opportunity for that. I love Bismarck palm trees with their blue green leaves, so I chose to do the one at the edge of the property, which had lights hanging from it. I pulled out a mechanical pencil and my trusty Lamy Safari sketched the scene. Then I added watercolor. I didn’t have a water container with me but I had water brushes. Unfortunately they chose today to make things difficult. The watercolors I used were a gift from a friend plus I also had use my mini palette, which has colors that I just can’t do without when painting anything green. The brushes were annoying but I managed to get by. (I’ll probably pull them apart after this to see why the water wasn’t flowing down to the brush from the barrel.)

This sketch is the end result of sitting outside drinking an iced coffee and dodging a rain sprinkle or two. It was a nice relaxing morning and John and I had a nice chat while I sketched.

Perfect way to start the day, and week.

Plein air watercolor and ink sketch of a Bismarck Palm. There are two strings of lights on the tree. Sketch has lots of greens, with a little touch of red blooms on a shrub.
Plein Air Sketch at the Crazy Dog
Plein Air sketch scene with art supplies and subject
Plein air sketch with subject and supplies
Plein air sketch with art supplie including a Stuart Semple watercolor palette.
Close up of sketch with supplies

Happy Halloween and the last day of Inktober!

Today is Halloween and it is also the last day of Inktober. I can’t say that I am not glad to Inktober go. It was fun to do the prompts but tough to squeeze it in. I am happy it is Halloween and I am sad to know that it is the end of October.

There is a special treat today where I am adding a Halloween sketch along with the Inktober Sketch. Today’s Inktober prompt is “farm.”

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and we were in BJ’s Wholesale Club and they had turkeys already! They were reasonably priced so we bought ours and stuffed it in the freezer.

Now that we are coming into November, I will be running around doing my Thanksgiving dinner scavenger hunt, because that is pretty much what shopping for my Thanksgiving groceries turns into, especially now since the pandemic.

The scavenger hunt starts with which store has the stuffing bread (I make my stuffing fresh, I don’t use those premade bagged stuffings), Publix makes fresh stuffing bread and they will even cut it and cube it for me. I pick that up right before Thanksgiving. Then its off to find who has turnips/rutabagas, getting the cream of mushroom soup, green beans and French’s onions for the green bean casserole for my daughter….buttermilk becomes hard to find because everyone is buying it, baking aisle items that are gone by Thanksgiving week. Oh hey, can I find chestnuts in Florida? Get that pound of uncased sausage for the stuffing….ANNNNDDDDDD, BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU DAY! woohoo! Have to get a few bottles of that for the holiday season before it’s gone.

And eggnog, which is usually everywhere.

Then I have to get pie making ingredients. Believe it or not, I already picked up melting chocolate because Sam’s Club got their shipment in already. The worst part is storing everything and running out to get the fresh produce right before Thanksgiving.

We have a running joke in our house that it takes almost a month to prepare for Thanksgiving, and the eating the meal take about 30 minutes tops.

But there are all of those yummy leftovers……..

Happy Halloween!

Inktober Day 31 Farm Pen and Ink sketch of a farm stand with produce under a tree. There are some pumpkins scattered about
Inktober Day 31 “Farm”
Halloween 2022

Inktober Day 30

Two days to go! I can’t believe October ends tomorrow! So sad because this is the best month of the year. The sad thing about October ending is we jump from Autumn right into the Christmas season without being able to enjoy Thanksgiving as an Autumn holiday. I mean, it’s nice to hear the Christmas music but I am not usually ready for holiday music until the day after Thanksgiving. What’s even more annoying is that the Christmas season ends in January, on the Feast of the Epiphany, but the music gets cut off Midnight on Christmas. Really? Like, at least play it until New Year’s Eve.

Sigh. Putting the soapbox away.

Today’s prompt is “gear” and I opted to sketch my backpack with some of my art supplies. I haven’t used this backpack in a while and I had just pulled it out to tidy up my art supplies closet. This is not a realistic sketch because I lug around more than this when I go out to sketch. Way too much stuff……

I usually carry around several different sizes and types of sketch books. I usually carry one with watercolor paper and a square one, that’s Instagram friendly. Various pens including my trusty old Lamy Safari and usually a Uniball Vision. I carry mechanical pencils because they don’t need to be sharpened. I just realized I drew regular brushes when my go to brushes when I am sketching on location are usually water brushes, which are brushes that have water in the barrel and you squeeze them for water and you rinse the brush by squeezing and wiping on a paper towel. I also drew a palette but the one I use the most is the size of a credit card and almost as thin! I bought it empty and I put my own colors in it.

Inktober Day 30 "Gear" Pen and Ink drawing of a backpack and art supplies which include a palette, brushes, pen, pencil and a sketchbook.
Inktober Day 30 “Gear”

Inktober Day 29

Wow, almost at the end of October. We are now into Halloween weekend. Where does the time go?

Today’s prompt is “Uh-oh.” For some reason I went right to thinking about the wildlife in the neighborhood, probably because our friendly neighborhood Little Blue Heron, was stalking through everyone’s flower beds, looking for “yum yums” like lizards and frogs. The lizards all head for the hills when they see herons and egrets. It’s hilarious to see the tall gangly Great Egrets balancing on top of trees and hedges, looking to pluck a tasty lizard morsel from the vegetation. It was this image of the balancing bird on a hedge that inspired today’s sketch. I hid some frogs and lizards in the sketch as well.

The Little Blue Heron, whom I affectionately call “Sid” (from Ice Age), trots through our flower beds and lawns. Then he’ll slow to a gangly stroll which is quite comical. I say hello to him and he just strolls on by, checking a bush here, a flower pot there. I saw him this morning, head cocked looking upward into a bush, hunting something. He’s a dark greyish bird and he’s very pretty.

The lizards, on the other hand, are the stupidest creatures. They have this whole territorial thing going on where they claim physical territory, like a tree, bush or their own personal plant in a flower pot. The males argue and do pushups to intimidate each other over females and territory. It’s hilarious when they are trying to kick each other’s butts when they are on opposite sides of a screen. When they see a potential threat, they will run to their “home,” even if they have to run in front of a car, bike, human, dog, Mack truck to get to their home. I don’t know how many times they get run over. Even the Iguanas run in front of cars. John and I just scratch our heads and comment “no wonder Dinosaurs are extinct.”

Inktober Day 29 "uh-Oh" Pen and ink drawing of a heron hunting in a bush for frogs and lizards and the prey doesn't look happy.