Sketching in Mount Dora, FL

The sketching group gathered in Mount Dora last Tuesday, Dec 5 for a little art.  It was a chilly morning (about 55) and windy.  So none of us wanted to stay out too long.  But the sun was lovely and so it turned out rather fun after all.   I sat in the shade of a "slatted" wood wall and ended up in interesting shadows myself!  

I moved to the corner at the main intersection on 5th Avenue and found interesting shapes, Christmas decorations, and got caught up in the wiring of the street lights! The building to the left on my sketch is the one with lots of wrought iron that looks like a New Orleans type building. Across from it,   I discovered a building I'd been by a million times that is called the Shamrock Building. I never knew that until I started sketching it.

Built in 1925 by James Simpson, the Shamrock building was first operated as a hotel.  Then it became the First National bank of Mt Dora which operated there until 1964.  It appears to be commercial property now.  

In this photo taken some year ago you can see where I was sitting to the right of the information booth facing toward the Shamrock Building.  Now and then there are horse drawn buggy rides available although I haven't seen them lately.  



5 of us went out to lunch at the Thai restaurant just down the block after painting.  We'll all meet at the Leesburg Library next Tuesday for our last get together in 2018.  

Using your own half pans to make a kit and how to do wonky printing

This is my little travel sketchbook (my third one) and it's an accordion book...pages about 3 x 5.  The tiny wc set next to it is in an Altoid's mint tin and I've glued in half pans (you can order them on Amazon). I painted the inside of the lid with white gesso and then a coating of clear acrylic gloss medium.  

I have one of those water brushes that unscrews and is half it's size.  It came in my Koi WC pan set.  I haven't seen them anywhere else but I'll bet you can find them. Great for tiny sets like this.  That dirty thing at the top is an athletic wrist band.  You just put it on and use it as a wiper for your brush.  
That way you have no need for bringing paper towels.

The tree with white and gold is from our church.  
It is a "Chrismon" tree.
"Chrismon" is a combination of the words "Christ" and "monogram," and means "symbols of Christ." Chrismons are gold and white, representing majesty and purity. Ideas for fashioning them are developed from early Christian symbols, the Bible and church histories.
                                          **************
Below is a wonky way to do some printing for use in sketchbooks...I call this printing "Zentangle®" printing because I first discovered it on the Zentangle site for CZTs.  

It is simple to use your own handwriting with this kind of printing.
Just kind of make the word a little "wonky" at first in pencil.  Then trace around it in ink once (we call that aura in Zentangle).  Erase the pencil and add some little "sprigs" coming out at random places.  Then aura again.  
Sometimes I aura twice as in this one.  Then I go back and color in the original letters.  I used colored pencil for this one.  Voila.  

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.

Inktober challenge draws to a close

It's time to say good bye to Inktober again.  It's been a fun challenge and especially since I was traveling part of the month!
This tangle is called "Cruffle".  

Fun to be home in FL now...just got back from the pool.  
Not too tough! 

Sandswirl is an "oldie" but a goodie.  One of my first tangles.  Q-belle is new to me but is pretty okay.  

We are beginning to settle in here in Florida.  
The first week is so hard...we are tired and a bit off switching times and trying to replenish the fridge and shelves and meeting old friends and getting caught up.  

Went to book club at church today. That was nice and stopped at the local art store.  Picking up materials for the wc classes I am teaching.  That starts on Nov 6.  

Hoping some more art will come soon.
This is gouache and collage started up north.  
Would like to get more going on this too.

Inktober Challenge #21 and 22

Hammadox and Yuma are both interesting and fun to do.  I've added a bit of watercolor to each.  Yuma was tangled AFTER the watercolor dried.  

We are in TN now just north of Nashville and headed to Alabama tonight.  One more night on the road.  We are always SO ready to be home by the time we get to the last night.  Drove through a lot of  rain in IL and KY yesterday which made for a stressful and tiring trip.  

Challenge for October: #19 and #20

Okay..just one more.  This is 4 generations...l to r: my daughter Beth, my granddaughter Maddy, her daughter Violet and me.  We got to spend two days with them and tomorrow are heading to TN and AL and then to home to FL.  It's been a nice trip down.

Weather was clear and sunny and about 50 in northern Illinois here.
Note: the first two paintings behind Beth are mine.  

Abeko and W-2 are the challenge tangles.  W-2 is an old friend...from way back when.  Always fun to re-visit it.  Threw in a little Zander on that one.  

Meeting Violet Virginia

Here is my great granddaughter, Violet Virginia...all the way from CA.  We hit it off just fine!  She is 3 months old.  Smart, beautiful, and way above average!!!  

Inktober # 17 and 18

These two tangles are "Narwhal" and "Luv-a".  I liked both of them.  Narwhal I've done many times but the second one I thought would make such a cute picture frame.  If I had time I would have put one in.  But traveling along the highway as I am...I am lucky just to get the tangle done!!!

We are currently in Love's Park, Illinois...visiting family along the way...Greg's daughter in Poynette, my daughter in Madison yesterday and now my daughter and son and their family in Warrenville, Ill today and tomorrow.  So wonderful to get caught up on news and share laughter and hugs.  

We'll be in Naperville for two nights now and that's nice to give us a break from the "driving routine" before we head south on Friday morning.  Off to breakfast now and a busy day ahead.  We will be meeting our great granddaughter, Violet Virginia for the first time today!!!  So fun.

Inktober Challenge #15 and 16

Pushing ahead a little starting today because we'll be heading out tomorrow and on the road for about a week.   I am not sure when I'll have time to get these done.  Still working in 3.5" squares.

About half way through the challenge now.  I am always amazed at how fast it goes!  

I absolutely adore these two tangles: Inapod is an old favorite and Joki is a new favorite.  

Our itinerary will take us south through Wisconsin and Northern Illinois stopping to visit family.  Then KY, TN, AL and GA before getting to Florida.  Packing clothes for this is tricky as we start at at 32 degrees and end up at 88 degrees.  

Challenge 11-13

Here are the next 3 tangles for the Challenge...11, 12, and 13.

Copada, Heartswell, and Dewd.

So it's snowing in the northwoods now...we HAVE to go now.

3 days and counting.

Day 7, 8 and 9 in the Inktangle Challenge.

These 3 tangles for days 7, 8 and 9 are Onion Drops, Cockes 'n' Mussels, and Feba.  

We are having flood warnings up here in the cold north woods.  By Thursday night time temps will drop to 27.  This could mean snow?

GRRRR.

Also watching Hurricane Michael closing as it is hitting the panhandle on Wed/Thursday and it's surely to affect our home neighborhood (near Disney).  Whew.  Lots of bad weather all around!!!  

Tangles 4,5,6 for the Challenge

The next three tiles in the Ink Tangle October one-tangle a day challenge are Facets, Fleavy, and Pais.  

The count down to leaving WI seems to gain momentum as the deadline gets closer.  I closed my studio today.  I hate doing that.  I feel bereft now.  But I kept out some sketchbooks.  We will take off a week from Monday.  Lots to do.  But packing and closing things up takes up a lot of time!  And everything takes longer each year.

Sad watching my friend Mary Gayle close up her place for the last time as they sold it this fall.  They will be full-time Floridians now.

Hoping we can touch base with them there.

We expect snow next weekend.  

OH my.  

The first 3 tangles for Inktober

Here are the first three tangles in Inktober Tangle Challenge.

1. Mooka. 2. YAH (You Are Here). 3. and Ginilli.

I've been posting them online on Facebook and on my Tangle Groups.  I completely forgot to post here!  

But probably 3 at a time is a good grouping!