Sketch supplies and a botched sketch revisited...

I thought I'd share some of my sketch supplies this week

I LOVE my travel palettes!
The hardest part is deciding which one to take
when I do go on a sketch outing.

The large palette is one I don't use much at all, even at home,

because it is so big and takes up a lot of room on my art table.

I've labelled the palettes for your convenience. 

I use a mix of brands in the tube watercolours - 

Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith, and Art Spectrum. 

I simply fill the empty pans and leave them uncovered

 to dry out overnight. 

I always re-wet with a water spray bottle 

before actually painting with them.

Another watercolour medium I like to play with on occasion 

are my Mungyo Watercolour crayons.
These were my go-to medium before I got my hands on my travel palettes.

I tend to use them in a similar way to how I work with a travel palette. 

I leave the crayons in the case, as is, and 

just pick up the colour I want with a wet brush. 

There are actually two sets pictured, 

one has had a lot more use. 

And these are my trusty biros/ballpoints 

in a variety of colour ranges which make another
great tool for sketching.
You can get a fairly good range of values with ballpoint pens.

I love my fountain pens and brush pens too.

On top of the art supplies pictured above,
I also have a range of Derwent watercolour pencils, 

Derwent Inktense water-soluble pencils,
Derwent and Prismacolour colouring pencils, 

Faber-Castell PITT pens, 

Prismacolor, Copic and Letraset PRO markers,

and lots more...

Don't get me started on my sketchbook stash.

As artists, do we ever stop adding to our art supplies?

Do you have a favourite,
can't be without,
art medium or art tool?

I think, for me, it would have to be
a sketchbook, a ballpoint pen and/or a fountain pen. 

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In January, I completed a month of portraits in my sketchbook. 

I confess that I had started one portrait but never finished it. 

You see, I had only outlined the initial sketch 

in ballpoint pen, and then went to add emphasis and detail 

with my Platinum Carbon pen when it decided to cough up ink. 

Disheartened, I moved on to a new sketch.

Since then, every time I flipped through my sketchbook, 

the bare skeleton of the sketch with ink splotches 

glared back at me.
Unfortunately, I neglected to take a photo
of the bare bones sketch

but, on Friday, I decided to go back and finish it.

I'm glad that I did because, 

 despite the messy ink splotches, 

I kinda like how she turned out.
Still minimal but much better than the bare bones look.
Her hair could be better but
I was trying to disguise a couple of ink splotches.

This was sketched in my Hahnemuhle D & S A5 sketchbook.

******************************

Over the past week,
I have become hooked on the Netflix series, Orphan Black.
 I'm now onto Season 2 already.
I thought a sketch of Sarah was fitting.
I went a little long with her nose,
which is a common mistake I tend to make with faces.

Sketched first with a BIC fine ballpoint pen
followed with my Platinum Carbon pen
in Holcroft A6 travel journal

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches again this week.
You can check out the other participants HERE.

Happy Sunday to all!

Sunday Sketches - Buddha and cockatiel

Hi everyone, 

I haven't had a lot of time for sketching this past fortnight. 

My eyes have been feeling very strained of late.

When I wake up in the mornings, 

they feel so sore and very dry. 

It actually hurts to open them.

I use eye moisture drops 

but they only give temporary relief. 

It could be the change in the weather as 

we're getting some cooler mornings. 

I do love the cooler months of the year. 

I'm definitely a winter gal at heart. 

My sketch this week is of 

the Buddha that sits on my bedside table 

I have sketched this Buddha in the past too. 

This time, I used a BIC Cristal ballpoint pen 

and my LAMY Joy fountain pen
for a little emphasis here and there.
See the date written in the lower left side?
I was going to stop the sketch there
and have it just fade into nothing at the base
but my pen had other ideas. 

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches this week. 

You can check out the other participants HERE.

I almost forgot to show you the finished calendar month 

filled with daily sketches. 

I'm very pleased with it.

I finished the month off with a sketch of my cockatiel, Phoenix. 

He's such a clever boy! 

I taught him part of our choir song last year 

which he picked up very quickly. 

He gets all happy and excited when he sees me.

He loves to chirp in a very high, ear-piercing tone, 

particularly in the mornings around 7 o'clock.

This can drive my sons crazy but I love him to bits!

Earlier in the week, 

Bradley (son) and I went to see Eddie, the Eagle at the cinema. 

We loved it! 

See preview below -
Direct link HERE.

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. 

Stay tuned for some pics of my travel palettes in my next post...

More calendar sketches and groomed doggies

The April calendar sketches are now complete 

but I've yet to take photos of the finished spread. 

I'll do that tomorrow and upload a finished pic in my next post. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

While I've thoroughly enjoyed doing a daily mini-sketch for April, 

I'm not sure I'll continue on through May. 

I am thinking of doing a much simpler monthly spread of doodles instead 

as I'm yearning to get back to sketching in a larger format.

I also found the Moleskine sketchbook paper to be more
than a little frustrating when working with watercolours.

I'm linking up to Sunday Sketches this week. 

You can check out the other participants HERE. 

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Cody and Jack were groomed in recent weeks 

so I took some 'before and after' pics. 

Cody BEFORE 

Cody AFTER

I forgot to take a BEFORE pic of Jack 

but I did get some AFTER pics.  

You may remember me saying once before 

how much Jack hates the camera. 

Well....here he notices my camera phone aimed at him 

He is not amused, hence the blur because 

he is already on the move to....

EXIT stage left...

That's all, folks!