A much-needed, very therapeutic Saturday of a little cleaning and a lot of sketching, reading, watching You've Got Mail for the 100,000th time... Pure Bliss... (except the cleaning - but the results are great!)

My first page of sketches is below, and then speaking of results...











The more finished sketch below may very well be my favorite sketch of my entire artistic career.  I don't know why, it just has it all to me... great lines and energy, my favorite things - cups that hold coffee or tea, and of course, books.  This sketch just feels like an accomplishment of sorts... And may I add that there is nothing, I mean NOTHING like a brand new Prismacolor colored pencil sharpened with an X-acto knife and chiseled ever so slightly at the end.  YUM!!  I had forgotten the pleasure that simple tool can bring.  The shadows in the white cup were too dark, so I used white gouache to lighten it and add highlights.  I started the line drawing with Faber-Castell PITT pens, and just went a little wild from there.  I do recommend knife sharpened colored pencils.  There is just something about the line they make.

And now I am having cinnamon coffee.  I drink mine black but I'm sure most people use cream if not cream and sugar - black and strong that's the way I like it... Just add a dash or two or three of cinnamon to the filter after you put the coffee in and then brew!  Perfect fall drink!  Happy Saturday evening everyone!

Not Your Typical...but a very wonderful Fourth of July Weekend

 My July 4th weekend trip: visiting a friend and her husband...Oh what a wonderful time!

Colored pencil sketches done while traveling in her "bookmobile" to bookshops and a book fair. The scenery was absolutely Gorgeous!!!

My friend thought my little tin of very short pencils was simply ingenious, so I must share it here.  It's a credit card tin I bought at a dept store and turned into a pencil case.  Inside are almost-used-up Prismacolor pencils that fit perfectly!  And the tin fits perfectly in my purse!

And lastly, I must share my huge selection of book treasures that I brought home with me.  This is not even all of them! I also got first editions of Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place and Rosamunde Pilcher's Flowers in the Rain and Other Stories!  Splendid weekend!  Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Prismacolor Overdose!!

Look at this!

A local art supply store is selling Prismacolor Art Markers for $.50 each - yes, 50 cents!!!! Can you believe that! I am so excited; like a kid on Christmas morning, or a kid in a candy store - good grief!! I bought all these - I went yesterday and today! Who can resist!! What's sad is, I probably owned this many again already - but 50 cents each!!!

Below is a little drawing I did using these and Prismacolor pencils.

I'm having way too much fun!!