My Snack at Work

Did this in my Moleskine using Inktense pencils. I just love this little sketchbook. I didn't eat the bananas after I painted them. The next day they were too ripe, so I gave them to my boss. I like them almost "crunchy" :-) 

This is a re-do of an earlier post from July. I did this originally on July 27, but added the background wash and touched up the entire sketch on 9/29. It bothered me with the white background originally. I did it first in Caran d'Ache Neocolor II with a Niji waterbrush. It looked like a very amateur crayon drawing somehow and I wasn't satisfied with it. So now here's the new version. What do you think? 

Zinnia in Cobalt Bottle 9_29_06

This sketch was done at work Friday afternoon using a pencil and Yarka w/c palette. The journaling on the left was about the autumn collage on the previous page.

I have so enjoyed my zinnias this summer and never want to go through another summer without planting a zinnia garden. Their brilliant colors and shape give me endless inspiration. I have taken lots of photographs so hopefully I can enjoy them all winter as well. 

This was done Friday at work. I used a Dark Umber Prismacolor Marker to sketch in the zinnias and then used Yarka Professional Watercolors to paint this sketch in my Aquabee. I added the collage pieces yesterday 9/30 at home in my studio. 

AutumnCollageinAquabee Sketchbook9/30/06-10/1/06

This is a collage I began Saturday morning 9/30 while Grace watched My Dog Skip. Then we got ready and went to the Lord's Acre Sale in Felts Park in Galax. This is a sort of festival where all the area churches gather and have tents or booths and sell crafts and other homemade goods - there were tons of people and it was a gorgeous fall day. The churches had pumpkins; homemade jams, jellies and applebutter; crafts; lots of delicious food; one booth was making homemade apple cider on site. It was a wonderful time! Fall is my FAVORITE time of year. There is just something about slowing down and really appreciating the beauty of nature and the harvest and realizing that all we have is a blessing from our loving Heavenly Father. The Creator who gave us so much beauty in the fall leaves and the brilliant blue skies. I love the colors of fall. It's a time to CELEBRATE!! 

Today's Doodles for Book Festival

Collage 9_15_06

This is one of my favorite creations in a while! I was creating a doodle and messed up writing the quote, so I collaged over it using paper from a Southern Living magazine page - lovely oranges and browns. I decided it needed something, so I found the words to add. I used Inktense pencils to color the foreground tea set and table. I just love this. I'm going to have a hard time parting with it if someone wants it at the Book Festival Saturday.
Does everybody find it hard to sell their work? I know I need to share it, and I certainly need the money, but oh, I don't like parting with it! 

More of the doodles. Can you tell I have some sort of attachment to this three-flower motif?? They just look so very, very happy and playful.

I've been doodling most of this week. These are usually 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 on watercolor or Stonehenge paper and I might frame them or put them in a plastic sleeve with a card stock background, sort of like a very easy mat. Some I've made into notecards. I'm hoping to sell them at a local book festival next weekend. The book theme is perfect for me because I LOVE and collect books and have since I was a little girl. I used to take books from wherever I found them lying around the house (you see I had 3 older sisters and an older brother), and put MY name in them and put them in my collection. Only if it was something I found interesting - like a book of Robert Frost's poetry for instance. I kept that book until just a few years ago when I got a larger volume with all his books in one.

A good book, tea or coffee, and flowers~ my idea of bliss. 

This is my latest "doodle." It's a lovely day; and I'm listening to jazz and painting. The quote says, "Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? -- how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea." - Sydney Smith (1771-1845)