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.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

These were all drawn with brown ink in  Lamy Safari pen and watercolor.

I used a magazine photo for reference and added and changed a few things.
 I wish I had cooked these beauties,
but i had a protein shake instead - 3 weight watcher points instead of 20!

Our favorite comfort food.

A pretty little accident transformed into art.
It's hard to eat spaghetti off of a paper plate.

Eat Your Veggies!

Green vegetables are sooooooo good for us.  I love them cooked so many different ways, but especially tossed with olive oil and sea salt and roasted in the oven.  I should have painted the Brussel Sprouts  that I recently burned.  They looked awful but were really quite good - crispy and salty. Yum

More little sketches for my "Food Sketchbook"

I'm trying to fill up one of my sketchbooks with only food items or things that have to do with food.  I'm thinking spices next. . . .

This is from a really great grocery store in Texas called Central Market.  I could have stayed in there all day taking photos. I got to sample the bread!

Sweets from Valentine's Week.  I made pies and bought cupcakes.  The little pink tin was given to me by a sweet friend in France. (And I know she is reading this blog post!)  Somehow the tin turned out kind of wonky.

I painted some brussel sprouts and broccoli this weekend, but I'm not pleased with them.  Maybe I'll like them better another day.  I have lots of spice jars sitting here in front of me. One day soon they will be in the sketchbook. 

Recent Sketchbook Work

Here is some work that I have done in my sketchbooks since the beginning of the year:

I have been taking Vespa and scooter photos for years.  These are Micron pen and watercolor.
At one time I did a little oil painting of one little orange one that I think is posted on this blog a few years back.
They remind me of snails.

Sketching at Whole Foods on a cold day.  The checker was so gracious and warm about the Urban Sketchers drawing her while she worked.

I added the beets on the bottom left of these 2 pages on the Whole Foods sketching outing.   I had drawn the other veggies in previously but felt I needed one more healthy food choice on this spread for balance.  I actually stood in the produce aisle and sketched while shoppers were choosing their produce items.  Everyone ignored me, thank goodness, except one young lady who worked in the store. She walked over and rearranged the beets as I was drawing, and then she walked away.  She didn't say one word or touch one other thing, just rearranged.  Maybe she was a little protective of her beets.  Hmmmm.

Here is a close up of those beets - fast and loose.  I don't love standing up and painting.

I was hungry for something sweet a few days ago, and this was the result.  I meant for this to be ink and watercolor, but I didn't realize I had the wrong ink in my Lamy pen. When I started to paint, the ink ran.  I had to correct what I could and then use Prisma colored pencils to add the color.   This sketchbook particular sketchbook 
is devoted to food.

Greeting Cards

Before Christmas I took an online class from Sketchbookskool.com called Let's Make Greeting Cards.  It was a 2 week class full of great instructions about designing cards and great information about submitting designs to card companies.  There were many assignments for preliminary sketches and for formulating ideas.  It was taught by Salli Swindell, a very experienced card illustrator who sells her designs to major card companies as well as smaller independent card companies.

In week one our final assignment was to design a Valentine card. I did this one in Photoshop.

The next week a class member created a Christmas Card design exchange. We designed a card and sent it to an assigned  group of 6 people from around the world.Five of my group were in the U.S. and one in Germany.  I mailed the cards out on Dec. 11. I never heard from some of my group   so I am not sure they all received my card.  Most people posted a message on Facebook to say they had received the card. 

I created my illustration on card stock with Stampin' Up Blends (markers).  I had to attach the artwork to other paper because the ink from the markers bled through the card stock .  I didn't mind that because I loved using these markers.

 Many participants made copies of the design on a printer instead of hand drawing each card.  I tried that and the color was quite good, but not quite as good as the original. So, silly me, hand drew each card.  I also made the envelopes and created a hand drawn sticker to attach to the envelope.  And silly, silly me drew all of the stickers on the wrong side of the sticker paper.  When I pulled them off of the backing I realized it was the backing paper.  They looked pretty good and the backing wasn't real waxy or slick like most backing paper.  However, no matter how I tried to glue it to the envelope, it would not stick. I had to redo them.  

And here are the cards from my entire group.

Sketching

I have been drawing and sketching a lot lately. I have filled several sketchbooks and started a few others.  Because of sketchbookskool.com I now have a sketchbook or two with me every where I go, as well as pens, pencils, and a wee little painting kit. Here are a few of my latest entries in my sketchbook.

I was in Ft. Worth recently and visited the HEB Central Market.  It was a feast for the eyes.  

Sketches of my granddaughters goat.

Cemetery in the back or our neighborhood that dates back to the 1850's.

Sketches from the Farmers Market

Sketched this during Elvis Week in Memphis in front of Sun Studio.

I love Vespas.  I want to ride/drive one so much.  I have been taking photos of the cutie pies
on many of my travels.  

Eggplant from the garden