Retired and in Texas

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have posted here. So much has happened.  I retired from teaching high school art, we sold our house in Tennessee, and we have moved to Texas to be near our children and grandchildren. We are unpacked and settled,and now it's time to paint and sketch and design full time!  So here I go.  
I'm living in Helotes, Texas outside of San Antonio.  I'm obsessed with all old trucks, and there is a great old yellow rusty 1963 Dodge tow truck on the highway near my house. 

1963 Tow Truck in Helotes, Texas

And the same truck dressed up for Christmas makes a great Christmas card.

Final Sketchbook Test

I have finished testing watercolor sketchbooks. (For now.)  This final book is a Daler-Rowney Cachet.  It is probably my least favorite.  The paper has a texture that I didn't care for and behaves like hot press paper. When I tried to glaze over a color, the first layer lifted or made water spots of some sort.  It did lift quite easily for corrections or refinements.  But, when I pulled up the artist tape I had used to create sharp borders,  it tore the paper badly.

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 On the left side in the sky, the paper actually tore into my painting. (I think you can see it.) I freaked first, then I glued it down with some diluted fabric glue.  The glue said it would dry invisibly, which it did, except for the sheen!  I should have tested it first.  Also, as I was brushing the glue on very carefully, the paper started to disintegrate.  

The tear is on the edge to the left of the house.  

Oh well, it is just a sketch.  

This is a building on the island of Île d'Yeu.  I'm not sure if it is a house.  It was from a photo I took and I don't remember what it was. (Maybe JB will know.)

I also painted this next one earlier in the week when we were off for snow and ice.  I could not make this thing work, and I am not happy with it.   I will put some of the blame on the paper and some of it on the artist.   The only reason I am posting it is because I loved this place. 

It is from a photo I took in the south of France in a village called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which translated means St. Marys of the sea.  It is in the Carmague area along the Mediterranean Sea.  These people believe that Mary Magdalene and two other Marys landed there after the crucifixion of Jesus. There are many legends surrounding these women, so who knows?  Maybe it is true. There are beautiful wild horses that run wild in the salt marshes of the region.  AND there is a huge gypsy pilgrimage that takes place here every year!

It seems so overworked. Every time I tried to glaze and add a layer of color, the underneath color lifted.  I should have stopped and left it alone. 

So these are the sketchbook I loved the most:

My favorite is the Kilimanjaro by Cheap Joe's.  A close second was the very inexpensive Cotman.  And I think I did finally love the Moleskin.  The top sheet in the pad curled a lot, but the second one did not.  And at first I didn't like the texture, but when the little paintings were finished, I liked the way they looked. (See earlier post.)

So now I will try some watercolor pencil sketching on these three pads and see what happens.  I have both Prismacolor pencils and Derwent to try. I have never been very successful with the watercolor pencils.  Maybe I just need to practice.

Reviving Watercolor

I had a tube of watercolor that had dried up and was rock hard.  It wouldn't squeeze out of the tube. That doesn't usually bother me because I can just cut open the tube and rewet the paint with my brush.  However, my husband put some of these empty paint tubes in my Christmas stocking, and I have been dying to use them.

 So I put the hard cakes of dried up paint in a little dish and soaked it in water.  I covered the dish with plastic wrap for several days and left it.  It absorbed all of the water but was not completely soft.  So I put some drops of gum arabic on the cakes and mashed it all together with several makeshift tools.  I did not have a muller, but found some rounded objects and ground it all together.  Then I used a palette knife to blend it until it was a smooth texture.  I scraped it into the bottom of the empty tube. I poked down in the tube with a toothpick several times to release air bubbles.  Then I used a paper towel to clean up around the bottom opening.  I folded the  bottom several times and then took it to my husbands vice.  I pinched it with the vice, being careful not to pierce the tube.  Voilà- a new (ish) tube of Ultramarine! Not necessary but Fun.

And Another kind of Watercolor Pad

I'm still trying out watercolor sketchpads, and I found one that I really like. This one is a Kiliminjaro pad from Cheap Joe's (www.cheapjoes.com) .  It has 140 lb cotton watercolor paper and sketching paper.  This could be a good pad for traveling and journaling. Paint on one and journal on the next.  I also used tape on it, and it came off without tearing.  I think this is the one we will use for our trip to France this summer.  I also like the size of this one.
The painting is once again from Île d'Yeu.  I had a beautiful lunch and lots of laughs on this sunlit patio with good friends.  (JB, does this house have a name?)

"Ker Chalon"
3" x 5"

Watercolor

NFS

Here is the pad I used.

Speed Painting

I tried to do one small painting in an hour tonight.  However, it probably took about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  This is another painting from Île d'Yeu in the same location as the previous post.

I used the little Moleskin sketchpad and liked it better this time because it didn't curl as much. I used the Koi travel palette and mostly conventional brushes.  I tried using the water brush, but kept picking up the old standbys, both from Cheap Joe.  I wanted a flat brush tonight and I always turn to the Golden Fleece by Cheap Joe.

Here's a picture of my set up as I worked from the computer screen:

Testing Watercolor Sketching Supplies

I am trying to find the perfect watercolor sketchbook, watercolor palette, and travel brushes for a summer trip to France with 8 high school girls.  Last night I painted on a Moleskin watercolor sketchbook, with a palette I made from an old Prang watercolor kit filled with Utrecht watercolor paint. This is my result.

Oops, the picture has the Koi palette, but I used the Prang one. I didn't love the Moleskin.  Notice how the paper curls up.  The paper also had a texture I didn't care for,  and I wish the paper had been a little heavier.  It might have prevented the curl.  But the final result was not too bad. I did use masking tape to create a border and the tape stuck to the paper.   This sketchbook paper has perforations so you can easily remove the painting from the book if you like.  Personally I like to fill up a sketchbook.  I have other books and palettes to try.  I will post those soon.