Making Tiny Sketchbooks to carry on location.

I am making up tiny sketchbooks for my sketchbook class later in January.  They are 3 x 4" and will be "purse sized".  A friend gave me the binder machine last year and you can get the plastic ring binders at Office Depot.  They do cost a bit and I used Canson wc paper, so I am going to have to charge a something each for the little sketchbooks.  They each have 5 pages with two sides...10 sketches.  You could probably have these bound at Office Depot too.  

There are pre-made teensy sketchbooks that you can find at art stores and in art catalogs.  I love the accordion fold out books and you can make those yourself too.  Here's one way. All depends on how much time you have for that sort of thing.  

Illustrated Recipes

This is the cookie recipe for my cookies for the exchange next Monday morning.  I haven't brought a bar cookie before but cranberries are very "Wisconsin" and so I thought this would be a good one.  

I also wanted to do a demo for my upcoming sketchbook class (in January) so they get the idea of how sketching has lots of angles to it.  Did you know there is a whole website for people who "cook and draw"?  Seriously...wonderfully creative website.  Take a look.

WC palette

Colors on my palette are:  leaf green, Hansa or Lemon yellow, Quin gold, Windsor orange, scarlet lake, Aliz crimson, permanent or quin rose, cobalt violet, cobalt blue, Antwerp blue (or Prussian or ultramarine), cerulean blue, bamboo, viridian green, burnt Sienna, magnetite black (that black is optional). 

Some of the folks who are taking my classes in beginner watercolor have asked for my palette colors.  Thought I'd just put them here.  

Watercolor Beginners.

Here's my Tuesday morning WC class.  All above average!!!
Proud of you gals!  

Discovery Gardens in Tavares, FL is part of the UF Extension office.  They have a lovely garden with many different areas to wander through.  Fountains and shady nooks and cactus and chimes and lots of benches.  Very fun.  

My Sketching Group in Florida met there this morning for a few hours.  By noon it was close to 90 in the full sun so we broke up then and headed out.  

Here's my initial sketch done with my Lamy fountain pen in my Stillman and Birns notebook.  

I used my Winsor Newton small wc kit and water brush for this.  It's not my most favorite sketching set up but I was kind of in a hurry this morning and took my smallest set up.  I hope next time I can take a little bigger palette and some real brushes.  

I plan to add some printing and maybe a map and I'll repost that when I have time to do it.  

The fountain played lovely splashing sounds as we painted.  I think we had about 6 or 7 people sketching.  One of the gals sketched me into her drawing...that was cool.  

Some of the gals went to lunch but I had a meeting and had to head home.  Hopefully next time.  

This was done with a Lamy fountain pen (no pencil) in Lexington gray ink and my Stillman and Birns Beta Sketchbook (my absolutely favorite).

It was a still afternoon and about 80 degrees and slightly overcast with the sun peeping out now and then.  The gal who had this set up at the Garden Show was down near the fountain area in Donnelly Park and it was shady and delightful to sit there.  Greg was so kind as to just wait for me.  He didn't even have a newspaper to read!  I consider this my birthday present from him!  There is enough white space left that I can do a little journaling about the day later. 

We bought a hibiscus plant to replace the one we lost last winter and I bought 4 tiny little plants for my "fairy garden" that I have been doing in a small pot indoors the last few winters.  People strolled happily among the many flowers and displays.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  This is a wonderful sketching event.

We stopped at a few garage sales along the way there and I found an absolutely darling bowl/gravy set in Christmas motif.  $3.00.  It'll be perfect for the holidays.  I didn't own a gravy boat.  I'll sketch them later! 

A Hand Painted Book for Violet

My loyal and patient blog followers have watched me watercolor and collage my alphabet book for my new great granddaughter much of the summer up north at the cabin.  My daughter had the book published this fall so that I could give it to my granddaughter, Maddy, in October when I was traveling south to FL.  

Here we are in northern Illinois on Oct 17.  
I also gave her the original pages which my daughter had laminated and bound.  You can see the book pages if you scroll on back on the blog.  

The book was very personalized...a was for "apple computer" and c was for "California" where she was born, etc.  Z was of course for "Zentangle".  This is a tad blurry but you can see it better in other blog posts.  Here's a child who will know Zentangle from birth!!!

A nice surprise for me too was that my daughter had all the drawings and photos put onto a poster than can be framed.  What a neat idea.  She used Shutterfly for the book and poster.  

I share that you might be aware that you can put your drawings and paintings together is a truly fun way.  Christmas is coming!

The book, as you already know, is highly themed to painting...b is for "brush" and w is for "watercolor", etc.  I expect her to love art and be an artist too.  

And here is a great grandma brag photo of Violet Virginia at 4 mo.