ARTING again!! Finally. :) And making tiny watercolor palettes, too!

I apologize for my lack of posts… Where have I been??!! At home, just staying busy with work, and everything EXCEPT art. But finally, my dry spell has ended! (I hope) Thanks to a friend kindly inviting me to her painting party Thursday, where we all painted the same thing,

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and the Hampton Roads Urban Sketchers September outing in Hampton this morning… thanks for the push, friends!

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Everybody’s art from today:

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Yeah, it’s a boat.

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This is the little sketch someone else did… great, huh?? She hasn’t drawn in forever and is still so good!

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A dog joined us for a few minutes while we sketched. He was cuter than his sketch. The weather was perfect. I’m surprised more people weren’t out!

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A sketch of some sketchers, before lunch, discussing some sketching moments. I hope they aren’t offended by the sketch… they look better in real life, too. 🙂

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(This is actually from last month, finding Clara and a toad sitting side by side on the back steps. I just used the rest of the page today at the outing.) There’s not much to this one… I just wanted to remember the moment.

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We went to Baked Cafe for lunch. Got my lunch in the sketchbook, too. Sort of. 🙂

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I couldn’t find my little travel paints. Well, I found LOTS of my travel paint sets but not The One I wanted. So I made this one from a business card holder. I hope to list some of these in my Etsy store soon, maybe before Christmas? What do you get the urban sketcher who has everything?? A personalized mini paint palette, maybe?

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I thought I had every color I needed, and some extras,  but at lunch I did miss quinacridone gold. I think I might remove schmincke’s helio turquoise to add daniel smith’s quin gold. I love love these teensy slim lightweight sets!!

This spring I purchased a stack of mats at a great price… I thought… but I finally used some and now I see why they were such a deal… they are not 5×7, but 6×8! A hard size to purchase ready made frames for. I found a set of inexpensive frames and got it, but they aren’t very pretty, and the cost of the pieces will be so much higher for the buyer with the added shipping cost! I don’t want to sell an unusual size without a frame, I also would rather not ship frames… I dunno… we’ll see. Kinda bummed about the little setback. Maybe I will just go purchase new mats.

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So… what have you been doing??

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urban sketching with the hampton roads group this evening

At the beach!! My favorite.

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Some beach-goers (and Donna 🙂

 

 

It was a beautiful evening, perfect for being outside. Okay, actually, the wind was an inconvenience to the paints and the paper, but felt so lovely that it was worth it!

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A little (sub)-urban-ish sketching 3/22/19

Some adorable homes in Chesapeake… ok, prettier in person. I parked my car and totally creeped on these nice neighbors, just sketching away. Then painted it at home. Does that count as urban sketching? I have so far to go.

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I REALLY did not capture the character of this line of homes. 😦

 

Urban Sketching in Hampton Roads

I joined the Hampton Roads Urban Sketching Club for a fun morning of… yeah, you guessed… urban sketching. 🙂 We met in the shopping strip of historic Hilton Village… my husband grew up in that neighborhood and I have hoards of fond memories of the place, so it was really nice for me to be there. It was great meeting other people who want to draw bits of their daily lives, and share creative ideas with each other. Our next “meeting” will be the first Saturday in November (if anyone is local and wants to join us?? Painting, and pumpkin bread… what could be nicer than that?)

The neighborhood itself is over a hundred years old, and full of history, and interesting homes. And cats. Lots of cats. We had planned to meet at Indulge, a little bakery and cafe there on Warwick Blvd, but their power was still out … one of Hurricane Michael’s residual effects! The owner (I assume?), however, brought us out huge, moist slices of pumpkin bread and banana bread, which was so thoughtful of her! AND made us loyal fans forever. It was a small kindness that we will all remember!

I hope the other artists aren’t going to mind me sharing some of their work:

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I loved being allowed to take a peek at some of their art, and swap A.S.A. (art-supply-addiction) tales, and seeing all of our different techniques! Art is really for the artist. It is nice when others enjoy it, really nice, but the creation of it soothes the artist’s soul. I think that is the purpose of it. Between the perfect weather, the quaint area, and the lovely companions, this outing was a WIN.

I meant to bring some new watercolor boards I had purchased just for this event, but forgot them, so took the opportunity to make today’s entry in my daily journal. I’m glad, now, that I forgot the boards.

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I think I have one of the ladies’ names wrong. Consider it a typo! 🙂

To catch you up, here are my other journal entries. I have completed an ink, or ink and watercolor, page each day in October…

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This journal is turning out to be so much fun! The size is great, too. I’m looking forward to being able to look back and see a journey of improvement! And also remember a little about each day.

So… what did you do today?