Watercolor and Pen and Ink Experiments

The above is an outgrowth of some of the exercises I have been doing from the Bert Dodson book Keys to Drawing with Imagination. The exercises I did are below. The first was the butterflies in silhouette, then since it is spring I got the idea of doing the same with a tulip shape. I was looking for some contact between shapes and I thought the tulip shape might be easier to work.

Once I finished the silhouette mode of the tulips I went on to the 2nd part of the exercise, which was to draw the images in contact and then darken the background or do a reverse silhouette. Since I had been playing with some new watercolor (to me) paints I though why not put the tulips on some painted water color paper. Above is the finished drawing. The tulips with just a darkened background didn't have a focal point, so I picked one of the tulips and added some details. Sort of OK, but I am glad this was an exercise and something I was more invested in.  Paper here and in the 2 other works on this page is cold press 6 x 6 inch Fluid Watercolor Paper that I purchased in block form from Dick Blicks last summer.

Original exercises for silhouette mode with pen and ink. I actually think I like the butterflies better, but I couldn't get the contact areas to work smoothly so used the tulips for the reverse exercise.

I purchased some additional paints, and wanting to see how they would work with one of my other paints did another wash study. The colors are Hansa Yellow Medium and Quinacridone Rose along with turquoise. The yellow and the rose are my new colors. This is another wet in wet wash which I started with the Hansa yellow in the center, then added the rose and finally the turquoise.  When it dried I thought it would be fun to add some ink work, and decided to keep to the circular theme. I drew 3 overlapping circles (using a roll of tape as a template) and added ink using my technical pens. No particular look in mind up front, I just wanted  to use various fills/textures. When I finished the outer rings I added the inner circle. Circles were drawn with pencil and then inked.

Not wonderful but kind of fun. and I do like the colors, might have been better if I had overlapped the colors a bit more, but I didn't want to muddy them which can be a concern with watercolor.

 OK at this point I was on a roll so I painted a third sheet, using the yellow and the pink but adding some purple instead of the turquoise. There is also a bit more color overlap in the wash with this one.

For a reference I selected one of the WetCanvas pen and ink forums challenge images, and using acrylic black ink and a dip pen drew the flowers in over the wash.  I did pencil sketch the outlines of the flowers first, mainly for placement but details were all done with the pen. This one I rather like, and think I need to play around with this technique a bit more to see where it can take me. Maybe I will use one of my own flower photographs next time. Maybe by the time I finish a series of these I will be more experienced with wet in wet watercolor washes.

Wednesday I took the bus into Boston for a visit to the MFA (wanted to finish viewing the Megacities Asia sculptures) and then a walk through a different area of Boston for photographs. I ended up walking the Rose Kennedy Greenway from the North End to South Station, there are some additional photographs on my Facebook page if you are interested. Anyway I did my usual on the bus ride into Boston and made this sketch of a fellow passenger. I did do other sketches but I liked this one the best. Done in my small sketchbook with a Copic Fineliner pen the .1 tip.

The above photograph is from my walk yesterday. I finally found some spring daffodils that hadn't been badly damaged by our snow and cold weather of over a week ago. I just thought these were pretty and the photo came out well. Oddly enough daffodils can be a bit hard to photograph.

Also from my Boston trip yesterday, this is the Christian Science Mother church. I am photographing this through the stand of trees that they have planted on one side of Christian Science Plaza, I like the tunnel to the left along with the still bare branches and blue sky. The reflecting pool is still empty so the plaza wasn't the best location for photos yesterday, not to mention the cement mixers that were doing something toward the front of the church.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Finished Colored Pencil and other

I wanted to finish the Purple Headed Sneezeweed work before I updated the blog. I really don't like posting in-process photos of works, I sort of feel that it is OK to post the beginnings of a piece, but once the drawing reaches a certain point (over half way finished) it seems to me that posting photos sort of ruins the final reveal. You are of course entitled to your own opinion.

Anyway above is a scan of the final work. The colors aren't quite right, scanners never seem to get yellow quite right, I have a feeling it has to do with the pigments used to create the color. So I have played with this a bit in Photoshop, this is a good as I could get it. When we get a sunny or less overcast day I will try to get a photograph of the drawing and see if I can do better color wise with the camera.

This was done on Stonehenge paper, size of the finished work is approximately 6 x 6 inches. I used a combination of many colors and different brands of colored pencils, mostly underlayers of various Derwent brands, Colorsoft, Artists, and Studio with final overlays of Faber Castell Polychromos. The flower is based on a personal photograph I made last summer the background is totally my imagination, but I rather like it.

The above piece is more of my playing around with a dip pen and colored inks. I decided I needed to take a bit of time away from the colored pencil work and do some sketching from real life, fruit is always good for quick studies so above are 2 pears and an apple. I really just wanted to play with the inks so I wasn't too concerned about accuracy. Done in my Strathmore Multi Media Journal, I used Red, Yellow, Antelope Brown and Indigo Blue acrylic inks for the fruit after making the initial outline with one of my technical pens in black ink. Not wonderful, but sort of fun anyway.

One day last week I took the bus into Boston, I wanted to visit Dick Blicks and the MFA. On the way in I sketched one of my fellow passengers. Just a quick sketch, but not too bad. I used a mechanical pencil for this in one of my smaller sketchbooks.

At the large Dick Blicks in Boston I discovered that they are now carrying open stock of the Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils. Oh my, I am in trouble now, well my budget is. These are very expensive pencils, but they are also the most colorfast pencils on the market so of course I want them. I already have a few and now I have the opportunity to acquire more.

At the MFA they are sort of between major shows. The artwork from the Americas showing the influences of Eastern art on western art is still on-going but the Dutch paintings are gone. There are a couple of smaller exhibits of some interest, one is some of the Photographs of Hiro. He was mostly a fashion/advertising photographer still some of his photos are iconic. The other is some of the fashion illustrations of Kenneth Paul Block. I found it interesting how over time he distorted the human form to feature the fashions he is illustrating, bodies and limbs become elongated, heads and feet were made smaller. In his drawings the clothes are what is important not the faces or accurate portraits of the models. The Illustrations range from some of his earlier works to later ones, and it is interesting to see how the figure is more distorted over time, the earlier illustrations show more realistic human models, the later ones are less and less realistic.

Since I am trying to get less realistic for my own art I am trying to pay attention to how other artists do or don't use realism in their works. Not sure I am succeeding with my goal, drawing realistically is a habit that is hard to break, but I think I now have a better understanding of what Picasso was trying to do with some of his art. I am not going to go that way with mine, but I can understand why he did.

A couple of snow photographs from this past weekend. We did get some of the snow that blanketed the east coast the end of last week, but no where near the amount of snow they got to the south of us, particularly in the mid Atlantic states. We got maybe six inches of snow not several feet. But we did get wind. The photo above shows how the snow was blown about settling in patterns and layers.

The snow was just damp enough to stick to trees, so above is a small tree with its icing of snow, you can see some of the trees behind it have a coating on one side of their trunks. I always love photographing snow when it has stuck to the trees this way.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Another Portrait and a couple of quick dwgs

I don't have anything very elaborate to post today, I am working on a new pen and ink pattern piece but it isn't ready to show off.

Above is my second drawing for the Flickr Group Julia Kay's Portrait Party another graphite portrait. I am fairly happy with it, and more pleased by the fact that it didn't take me as long to get semi right as my first portrait did. I have a couple more photo's that I have already downloaded, just need to motivate myself and get to them.

This one was a bit of a challenge as the angle and position of his head are not usual, was fun to draw for that reason, you will have to take my word for it that it even sort of looks like the photo.

The above is just a doodle, another of my technical pen "exercise" sketches. I use each of my ink filled technical pens for at least a minute on each of these, a way to make sure the ink hasn't dried in the pens. Course right now I have 2 that aren't very happy with me and I think I will need to break down and replace the tips. Ah well cheaper to replace the tips then the whole pen, next time I am in Boston at a Dick Blicks they will be on my shopping list. With one of the tips I have damaged the wire that feeds the ink and the other is blocked, I left the pen un-used too long while the pen was filled. Course it is the 3x0 tip and all it takes is bit of debris to block those, in fact I thought I had it working and then it just stopped and now nothing I have done clears it. Some days I wish I had an ultrasonic cleaner.

Done in one of my smaller sketchbooks, and ivy plant from imagination.

I did the above for another of the WetCanvas Scavenger Hunts. Graphite in the dedicated sketchbook, it is a drawing of a small jar of Thyme leaves that I have in my kitchen cabinet. Not much else to be said about this, except glass is tricky you get highlights and shadows in odd places.

And now, time for more snow photographs. What can I say it is the dominate feature of my landscape and life right now, feet of snow, on roofs, on columns, on the ground, and covering sidewalks. Both of these photos were made Sunday after the clouds cleared from our latest blizzard, which dropped at least another foot of snow on our previous six feet (give or take). The wind can really whip the snow into some unusual shapes, taking from one spot and leaving it in others.

The photograph above is the corner of a roof and shows how the snow was blown to overhang the edge. It is lit by a sun that was starting to set.

This second photograph is one of the columns that support an old cemetery fence, I have shown photographs of the cemetery before as it is just around the corner from me. For some reason the wind left this column of snow on top of the support. Not sure how many feet tall it is, there is no way I can get close enough to it to figure it out, well maybe if I had snowshoes, but I don't, so you will just have to take my word for it, that snow is feet tall not inches. I posted the more standard type snow photographs on my Facebook page for anyone interested.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are appreciated.  

Back to the MFA, Mandala Update

Traveled back into Boston on Wednesday to re-visit the Boston MFA and the Goya exhibit. On the bus I drew a quick sketch of a fellow passenger just to keep my hand in. Not wonderful but not too bad either. It can be a challenge to draw on a bus as the ride isn't always smooth, and I don't really want my fellow passengers to realize what I am doing.

On the rest of my journey I started the above panels for I guess you could say graphic stories. I have, for a couple of years, been working on writing about some stories/adventures from my childhood. Some of these stories involved a cat we owned for a brief period of time. Or should I say he owned us. Anyway that cat was most adventurous and how he survived for as long as he did I am not quite sure, I am sure he used up more than one of his 9 lives in his adventures. Two of the panels have to do with stories about him, top and bottom. The middle was something that happened to me with a friend one day when we went exploring.

Anyway I have been wanting to add illustrations to some of the stories and have actually spent some time doodling possible images. Still not much has jelled other than a few concepts and I wasn't pleased with any of the sketches I drew.

As an aside one of the groups I am a member of (Everyday Matters), has an adjunct site Sketchbook Skool where they have classes for beginning artists. One of the classes that has been discussed is Storytelling. Add that thought to others rattling around in my brain, and I though to myself, why not do panels for the stories using the style of comic book art. That way the art doesn't have to be elaborate or even totally accurate, just enough so the readers know what they are seeing and can relate.

Hmm, well the result is the 3 panels above. Not sure where I am going with these as they are only thumbnails and the real art work would need to be much larger. But I think I finally have an idea that I can work with. This will be a totally new adventure for me as I have never done this type of work before. I previously never had any desire to draw a comic strip, which just goes to show that you never know where art can take you.

You're probably going to yourself "what is that"/ The above image is a close up a pattern on a Greek Vase. After going through the Goya exhibit for a second time, this time with the narrative device that they rent to attendees, and which is fairly informative and supplements the notes next to the pictures. I wandered over to the part of the museum that has ancient art on display and found the newly renovated Greek and Roman Galleries. They aren't quite done with the renovations but I totally enjoyed viewing what has been finished.

I have been making it a habit to photograph esp. ancient pottery with the repetitive designs the artisans used. I consider these photos as reference materials to be used in some of my own art work at some point. Esp. with the mandala drawings I create I am always on the lookout for designs that can be used in panels. Vases are circular to designs used on vases are esp. appropriate.

I spent a little time translating the design in the above vase to my notebook. I used various technical pens to ink this, and did a terrible job, but still I like this pattern and am looking forward to finding a use for it.

Speaking of Mandala's above is an update on where I am with the one I have been working on. Since I am motivated to start another using Greek motifs I really need to get this one finished. I am in the outer band, and even better I would say I am about half way finished with it. I am getting there. Not sure how I feel about the over all piece. Some parts I like and others could have been designed differently. Looking at it as I write this I think I have an idea for some changes that I can still make and which might improve one of the inner bands.

Even though Wednesday was overcast with no bright sun I think I finally managed to get a fairly good photograph of the Indian statue that stands in front of the MFA. With the backdrop of the changing Oak tree the statue is placed in relief and becomes very visible. In other photographs I have made of it the horse and rider seem to blend with the background.  Sorry I don't recall the title of the work or even who the sculpture is.  Oops will have to pay attention the next time I travel to the museum.

That is it for today, nothing major finished, but some generated concepts and an update on a major piece. Per usual comments are welcome.

Plants, more in Transit drawings and a MFA visit

Another week, another trip into Boston. Again I had to wait for the Bus, not quite as long a wait as last weeks but I did wait. This week I drew one of the buses pulled up in a bay near one of the marker stanchions. Not wonderful, but not too bad either. Graphite in my sketchbook, I am using a mechanical pencil with a B lead, it works OK, but I find it a bit frustrating as while it is a fairly thin lead (0.7mm) is also isn't as pointed as I can get my leads when I sharpen them and I miss having that sharp tip for details.

A fellow passenger on the Red Line into Boston. While in a way I am happy that most passengers occupy themselves with their smart phone/readers/tablets whatever, meaning they never notice I am drawing them. It does give me a skewed look at their faces (tilted down), which isn't always the view I would prefer to draw. Oh well, I will take what I can get.

I rather liked the cap and wish I had done a slightly better job of it.

Some of the rose bushes the city has planted along the edge of a parking lot are producing the largest rose hips I have seen. Anyway the above pen and ink drawing is of one of them portraying two different views, side view and top down. Just a quick sketch with one of my technical pens in my sketchbook.

A quick sketch of a small flower/plant that I picked on my walk to the bus station. I don't know what it is as I didn't recognize it, a light purple flower with more rays than petals. I don't think it is a wild flower, maybe some kind of herb escaped into the lawn.

At long last (it has been about a month) an update on the Mandala I am working on. I finally made some decisions about the outer ring, have the poppies drawn/inked in and have started coloring them. I have also started drawing the other decorations that will go into that ring but so far haven't started inking them. That job really needs to be finished soon as I can't start on the backgrounds until I have finished inking and erased my pencil lines. Still quite a bit of work to go, but I am making progress.

Above are two photographs from the MFA Bright Matter exhibit. The top is an installation work that was set in a room by itself, painting on mirrors that reflect the bright lights onto the walls casting shadows. The bottom two images are paintings/collages that are a contrasting pair.

The artist is Shinique Smith and she uses a lot of fabric in her art. She not only collages fabric into her paintings but creates soft sculptures with stuffed animals and clothing she has acquired. I have a feeling she is a frequent visitor to her local thrift/second hand stores.

I didn't expect to like her art, there is a lot of modern art that I think is really junk that is being called "ART" by some supposed "expert", but I did. I love her use of color and the curving lines that she tends to use appeal to me.

I did a lot of wandering around the MFA on this visit, trying to get to know the old wings and the new in relationship to each other. I think I saw most of the special exhibits even if I didn't take time to examine them on this visit. Course the museum is so large that I think it will take me quite a few more visits before I become totally familiar with what is where and can find my away around without getting a bit lost.

Last image today is of a Sugar Maple that is growing in my neighborhood. It is obviously changing colors, with these glorious reds and oranges. Coincidentally the colors here are repeats of the colors used in one of Shinique's paintings above, cool blue (sky) hot red orange (leaves) with dark branches instead of black lines.

I have a feeling the owners of the house/yard where this tree stands have no clue it is a sugar maple. I have to wonder if the original owners used to tap their tree in the spring.

I worry about these trees, here in MA we are getting toward the southern range of the Sugar Maple, they like cold winters and I worry that with global warming these trees with their beautiful fall color won't survive in my area.

Just a FYI the only thing I did to this photograph was to crop it, colors are pretty much as they are in real life, enjoy.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

A Portrait, a Watercolor and Stipple Update

A fairly quick graphite drawing of a young girl wearing a hat from a photo reference posted to the WetCanvas Photo Library. Isn't she cute. I think it took me as long to get the hat the right size as it did to draw everything else. It started way to small to fit not only her head but anyone human. Thankfully I realized it and was able to correct it.

Next time I need to draw a hat on someone I will try to remember to draw the whole head first then add the hat over it. If I had done that the drawing would have been finished much faster.

Drawn in one of my sketchbooks with mostly a B lead.

Managed to get out to one of the parks this week with my newly finished watercolor sketchbook. There was a pair of mallards sitting in the grass, I started with the female then added the male. Unfortunately they moved before I finished painting the male and I decided to not try to do much more with him. He is starting his summer molt, so while his head is still green some brown feathers are starting to replace the white ones on his belly besides the some of the grey ones on his back. Mallard males in eclipse (brown feathers) can't fly so they need to find a home where they can find food and will be safe from predators.

The next challenge was to paint the background. Not sure how successfully I managed that. Ah well no one has said that painting outdoors is easy. Just have to keep at it. I did add a few pen lines to the finished dry painting to help define the male ducks bill, and the texture of the tree trunks.

I have always known but am still rediscovering that painting tree trunks that don't look like a total mess is hard, esp. when the tree is fairly close. Still haven't quite figured out how to handle them, but I think these aren't quite as bad as my previous attempts.

The above is a stem with some leaves and flowers of a Saint Johns Wort plant. This is another of those medicinal plants that early European settlers brought with them to the new world. It escaped from those early gardens and now can be found growing wild in meadows and waste areas. It is toxic to grazing animals so needs to be kept out of pastures. It is still used in herbal medicine.

Since traditionally the herb would be picked for celebrations around this time of year I thought it an appropriate image for today's Solstice.

My drawing was done first with pencil then inked with some brown ink and finally I added some colored pencil. The plants can be very bushy which I haven't totally managed to convey, but otherwise I am fairly pleased with this.

An update on how my stipple piece is coming along. Mainly more work in the upper right hand corner though I also started more work in other areas.

The reddish seed pods above are growing on a Redbud tree. Since it is still early days with these pods they are still quite flat with only hints of the seeds that will be developing inside. I find it interesting that the seed pods on the white blooming Redbud trees are just green with no hit of red.

I just like this photograph with hints of green against a blue sky.

That it is for today per usual comments are welcome.

Nature Journal, portrait and a design

Above is another of my nature journal catch up pages. Again the place was Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA and the time was May 6, 2013. Images for this page are more of my old standbys. The fact that I started using basically the same images over and over is I think one reason why I lost interest in the Journal. There are still a few more written observation pages and I want to finish the illustrations that go along with them.

Again the tree stump in the panne with a few turtles, only 4 on this day, but one was fairly large. Next is a quick drawing of a pair of mating Canada Geese. I saw most of the courtship "dance" (head bobs) that lead up to the actual mating. As I recall they waited a while and then started over. After a series of synchronized head/neck bobs the male mounts the female as they swim in the water. I have a feeling this was a rather late pairing since the bottom image is one of a pair of parents with 2 goslings. I was being warned off by the arched neck and loudly hissing parent.

I must say that all my visits to Daniel Webster over about a year and a half allowed me to observe a lot of Canada Geese behavior that I had never realized prior to this time.

I made the above graphite portrait the other day. Not sure if I am pleased with it or not, the photo (another of the May WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum challenge images)  has very dramatic lighting, both making it easier to draw but also in a way trickier. This man has the most androgynous face that I think I have ever drawn. Hair was very fluffy, and the mouth just doesn't seem male, however the nose and chin are very male. The subject had very dark eyelashes accenting the arc of the top eyelid.

I tried to do this portrait with just tone and very little line, it should really be done in Pen and Ink for the challenge, but I don't think I will be attempting to do that.

Not quite sure where the above design came from. I was just sort of doodling around and this just evolved. The birds came first then other elements got added in until it seemed finished.

I was thinking it looks a bit like a Pennsylvania Dutch motif, but why it should surface at this point in time I have no clue. Sketched first in pencil, then inked and color pencil added, drawn in my sketchbook.  Though in some way blue birds might make sense, after all it is spring, and spring here in MA brings mating blue birds, so maybe that was origin of the design.

It also looks like something that could easily be translated to applique for a Baltimore Album Block. Course I don't do hand applique and have never had any desire to make a Baltimore Album quilt so it won't be me who does the sewing. I wasn't consciously coping anything though in fact there are probably similar designs out there.

Above is a photograph of the Brockton Public Library with a white dogwood in full bloom. On the other side of the entrance there is a Pink Dogwood also in bloom. But I think the white tree gets more sun light since it has a more dramatic show of blossoms. This is the front of the old Library building. A few years ago they build an addition toward the back with a second main entrance.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Nature Journal and 2 portraits

Another blog update and another catch up page from my Nature Journal. Another visit to Daniel Webster again from April of 2013, this visit was on the 30th so almost one year ago. My usual tree stump in the panne with only 3 turtles that day. A violet I saw blooming in the grass and more Canada Geese. I decided to do the unusual and add a bit of color to the violet, this one was actually the pale violet depicted and not the dark violet which is more common.

The geese couple had 5 hatchlings in their brood in my photograph but I selected only four of them for my drawing. As I recall there were several pairs with young on the day I visited. Since Daniel Webster has quite a few predators (fox, hawks, snapping turtles for sure, there may be others) adults have to be vigilant and most parents end up raising only a couple of their goslings to full adulthood. These little ones make a tasty morsel.

In the past couple of days I have been involved with a discussion in the WetCanvas Drawing forum regarding drawing portraits. Some members suggest using tools to achieve total accuracy in a drawn portrait from a reference photograph. The tools suggested are using grids, or even using projectors of one sort or another so that an outline can be traced on the drawing paper then shading would be added.

Neither are my cup of tea. My training and inclination is to draw freehand, starting with some givens and working from there. Using erasers to make corrections as needed. If in the end I don't achieve total accuracy so be it, as long as I get it mostly right I am satisfied.

Anyway this discussion reminded me that it has been a while since I did a serious portrait study. The gentleman in the Library in the last post was just a quick sketch, so I pulled out a photograph that is actually from April's pen and ink challenge got my pencils and erasers at the ready and drew.

The above is what I finally ended up with, probably not totally accurate, but it is pretty close. I have to admit that for this drawing I did what I usually never do, I drew the boy's eyelashes. Normally I never draw eyelashes, but because he was either looking down or had his eyes closed the lashes made a very definite pattern against his cheeks and needed to be included.

Not sure how well I did with this young man. For this drawing I deliberately chose a rather difficult reference image from my own photographs. The photograph was made with a flash which reduces shadows and flattens features, also he is a young boy and was looking up at me when I made the shot. He wasn't entirely happy to be photographed as I hope his expression shows.

So the difficult aspects of this image with regards to drawing, first he is still a child and I usually draw adults (different relationships between some features) odd angle of view, and few shadows. Mostly I am pleased with how this turned out, could be better but could have been a heck of a lot worse. I wanted to challenge myself and believe me I did.

He is a relative of friends of mine, and the photograph was made at a Holiday gathering I attended.

I usually only post one photograph at the end of each update, but had to post this photograph of a rainbow. We had a rain storm come through Wed until Thursday afternoon, by evening it had cleared enough that we actually saw some sunlight, then a group of storm clouds came through bringing a brief shower and this rainbow. Photograph was made looking east with trees and houses being lit by an almost setting sun.

I did manage to get out between showers yesterday for a walk and spotted these blooming tulips. Aren't they beautiful, pretty pink and white flowers. Maybe there is another drawing here. 

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. 

Stuff and a solution for Too many Pencils

A couple more drawings done or at least started in Chicago. Above is a portrait from a photograph in one of last years National Geographic's. Their photographs are often fun to use as a reference because they get the lighting right, usually strongly directional which shades one side of the face while highlighting the other.

Not sure how well I did with this one, not too bad as I recall, but of course there are errors, I haven't gotten to the point of not having them. Oh Well, just have to keep working at it.

One of those subjects that I seem to return to again and again are cups. You would think I would get tired of them, but I find them an endless challenge to get right. The one above was started in Chicago but finished here at home when I realized I had done my usual trick and slanted it to the right. I turned the drawing upside down, realized my major error and tried to correct it as much as possible without the reference cup.

Wish I knew why I do that, because I am right handed, or is a visual issue with my eyesight? I suppose either is possible as I do have to wear glasses and have an astigmatism. I will just have to remind myself that I need to flip drawings with vertical lines upside down to check how perpendicular they are to the base line before I get too far with the drawing.

Do you suffer from the same problem I do? Too many pencils to fit easily into traditional pencil holders. Below you can see photographs of my solution to my problem, home made pencil holders.

I start with paper towel tubes, cut them into lengths, usually 4 or 3 inches, cover them with fabric (I quilt so I have lots of fabric), then seal with acrylic gloss medium. I use thinned Elmers School Glue to glue the fabric to the tubes, applying to the surface of the tube, wrapping the fabric around it and then applying more glue to the surface. The fabric is usually about 2 inches longer than the tube so I fold it over the top and bottom of the tubes to give a neat edge. I allow the glue to dry before applying the medium.

Once all the tubes are dry again I use hot glue to glue the tubes together. Then using thin cardboard which has been cut to shape I hot glue the tubes to the cardboard. This gives the tubes a bottom so the pencils don't fall out. The bottom image above shows most of my pencils in their holders. These are just my colored pencils and some of my graphite ones. The watercolor pencils are in different containers.

I like the tubes because each tube will only hold so many pencils (about 12 to 18 depending on the dia. of the pencil). I can take pencils out of the holders to use without having the rest of them fall over which I have found to be a problem when using a large container that holds a lot of pencils. Question for the day: Can one have too many pencils?

I am ending the update today with a sequence of three photographs made over about 24 hours:

Here in Eastern MA we had a couple of days of blowing snow along with quite cold temperatures. The above series of photographs was made out of one of my windows showing a south facing porch railing that got covered with snow and what happened to the snow over about 24 hours. Top photograph was made shortly after it had finished snowing (around noon Friday) The middle photograph was made later that afternoon and shows how the ridge of snow had sagged but not fallen to the deck. The bottom photograph shows the snow yesterday morning sort of drooping in the middle but still hanging in there. As I recall it fell to the deck about an hour after I made the photograph so the railing is now free from snow. Usually snow on the railings just falls or is blown off, so this sequence is quite unusual.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.