Dealing with a heatwave...and a sketch

Well, our area did in fact hit 42°C/107.6°F today.  There was no way we were going to sit at home without air-conditioning so we didn't need to be asked twice when Mum invited us over to her place to spend the day. YES! She has air-conditioning! I made a yummy tofu satay noodle dish to take over for lunch. We packed the doggies in the car and off we all went to visit Mum and to enjoy her gloriously cool air-conditioning! So, SO grateful we didn't have to suffer the dreadful heat — even Cody and Jack, our doggies, savoured the coolness at Mum's place.

Of course, we all had to head home some time and, even at 4pm, it still felt like we were in living in a sauna. Some vegan vanilla ice-cream with mango sorbet helped cool us down a little. It looks like we are now in for a hot, muggy night but at least it has cooled down a little to what feels like 33°C/91°F.

I didn't sketch today so will need to catch up as I am still determined to meet my goal of 365 sketches for 2017.  For now, I thought I'd post a sketch that I did on our trip to Wellington Point a couple of weeks ago.

I always love visiting the bayside area. Stonefish are the most venomous fish in the world so, despite the hot day, I decided not to wade into the water.  However, Aaron decided to play daredevil and waded in, bare feet and all.

Bradley and I weren't that crazy so we shared a spot under the shade of the beautiful Moreton Bay Fig trees...

along with some of the birds.

I threw out some oats and sunflower seeds around the picnic table for them so they could dine in style.

While there, I sketched this tree in my large Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with both permanent and water-soluble ink pens.

I did more work on it at home with ink and a brush

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches again this week.  To see the work of other participants, you can click HERE.

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful weekend regardless of weather conditions.

More sketches for Paint Party Friday

We've experienced another week of unbearable heat and humidity and, to top it off, we are expecting a heatwave this weekend where temperatures could reach 42°C/107.6°F in our area.  It's times like this that I wish we had air-conditioning but I guess I'll be grateful when the electricity bill arrives. Looking for the positives, people... It's the humidity I can't handle — give me a dry heat any day.

Below are some messy pen/ink sketches from the past week or so. First up is Cody, my baby. He will be 11 years old this year and I love him dearly.  He is a Maltese/Shihtzu/Chihuahua mix but looks mostly like a Maltese.

And here he is having a good stretch after a nap

This is an extra large kennel which sits by our back sliding door. Cody and/or Jack only ever go in their kennel when they come inside with wet paws so they are only in the kennel long enough for their paws to dry off — which can be anything between five to thirty minutes. Both detest being put in the kennel yet, sometimes, I will wonder where Cody or Jack are and yep, you guessed it — I will find one of them curled up inside the kennel fast asleep. Crazy dogs! 

A messy, loose sketch of my foot

And lastly, my mobile phone

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday again. To see the work of other participants, click HERE.

I'm having trouble with my hands again. Aaron (son) and I were refurbishing our old dining chairs and I was spraying them with a can of paint.  Well, the pressure of having to hold the nozzle down kept seizing my hand to the point where I would have to swap the spray-can back and forth between hands repeatedly. Now, I'm feeling quite a bit of pain in both my hands, particularly the right one. I'm finding it difficult to do simple tasks like opening or closing a peg, squeezing out toothpaste, lifting the water jug, using hairspray type nozzles, etc. I'm hoping it's just muscular as the pain travels all the way up to my elbow. Either that or arthritis.

I haven't had much luck with my hands over the past five years. My regular readers will know that I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands last year at different times due to long term issues.  I then went and fell in a puddle of water at a local shopping centre a few months after the surgery on my left hand which happened to take the brunt of the fall. Major OUCH!

I'm hoping the pain will settle down soon with a bit of rest.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.  I hope those of you suffering our heatwave conditions somehow manage to stay cool.

Sketching by the lake

We've had another horrible week of high heat and humidity. The nights are hot and muggy too so no relief. I dream of faraway places with snow...

This weekend marked the second month for the new Moment Catchers project over on Candace Rardon's BLOG. I was considering a trip into the city for some Urban Sketching but opted for Forest Lake instead.  It is a man-made lake smack-bang in the middle of suburbia. It is home to quite a few species of waterbirds, turtles, etc.

It was such a hot day so I found a shady spot on a park bench to sketch this tree.

Then a splash of watercolour with more pen detailing

Next up was the water dragon sculpture in the lake.  The heat ended up getting the better of me and we headed home where I finished the sketch off with watercolour.

See below for more daily sketches from the past week or so.

I find sketching with ballpoint pen so versatile. It can be soft enough to almost have the appearance of graphite, yet with more layering, it can be quite dark. Of course, it can't be erased but I can live with mistakes.

I thought you might like another process sketch this week.  A rooster to mark the Chinese Year of the Rooster — the Fire Rooster to be precise. According to Chinese astrology I'm going to be in for a tough year and I can believe it if the beginning is anything to go by. I was born in the Year of the Earth Pig and I have always found the Chinese Astrology to be uncannily accurate. Which Chinese sign are you born under?

A pen sketch to begin with

First pass of watercolour

Final stage with more watercolour and detailing

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches again. To see the work of other participants for this week, click HERE.

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful weekend.