Chex mix, berry trifle

We recently visited the Ohio Glass Museum, arriving too late for the tour, but just in time to view the holiday gift shop offerings.  A few shelves of interesting, inexpensive Anchor Hocking pieces were stacked in the back, behind aisles of colorful blown glass.
I picked up a sturdy trifle bowl for $6.00, and a few days later, layered my first trifle. Prepared ingredients made it easy.  The next time, I want to try making the components from scratch.

My mother sometimes made Chex mix to snack on, when we started off on family vacations. I decided to make it this holiday season, for old times' sake.

(I can tell my sketching practice has been neglected, when "hairy lines" creep onto the page.)

Green thoughts

Jill Weber, an illustrator living in rural Vermont, teaches one of my favorite Sketchbook Skool classes. She makes little books with stories from her life. I miss summer greens, in this week’s frigid weather, and thought of her garden book.

One of January’s garden tasks is to pore over nursery catalogs, planning orders for spring planting.

More: Behind the scenes with Jill Weber

"Art Haul"

Breakfast at Bob Evans

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors

My "art hauls" usually consist of one or two items purchased online or at a local art/craft supply store (often on sale, clearance, or with a 40% off coupon), just enough to anticipate a new way to play with mark making.
This time, it was Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors,  which I used in the ornaments depicted above. The six shades of sparkly gold appeared gaudy until the Advent season; then suddenly, they fit. The metallic paint, while rather opaque for watercolor, retained a surprising amount of sheen when dry.

The top sketch also shows a couple tables of friends engrossed in breakfast conversation, at the local Bob Evans.

Friends, memories, feelings

These were sketched after watching illustrator Marloes De Vries's Sketchbook Skool class, a month ago.
1. The first assignment was an experience. The identifying caption in that sketch required kept it private.
2. The second, shown here at the top of the page, was to draw a few friends, reduced to simple lines and labels. (I doubt anyone here can be identified! I am having a hard time remembering who they were intended to portray, myself.)
3. Childhood home, from memory.
4. Internal (art) critic.
5. A feeling. (This was while listening to Willie Nelson's Down Yonder, even though I mistakenly wrote Bandera in the note here. I think it features his sister, Bobbie, on the piano. The whole Red Headed Stranger album is great.)

This type of drawing can be very therapeutic.

Dublin Green, November

This is a quick sketch of the west side strip of the new Dublin Green shopping center being built. I over worked it once I got home, losing some of the tonal gradient, getting too busy with the bricks. The windows became too dark. Sometimes you just enjoy laying down lines and pigment, even when you know you're done.

Experiment

I am not into drawing from imagination, but had been confined to home for a few days, so gave it a try. 

This sketch was a mix of impressions left after viewing Ohn Mar Win's Sketchbook Skool class and listening to the Areopagus podcast interview of actor Jonathan Jackson. It turned into a bit of pattern play.

Ohn Mar's sketchbooks contain several pages of depictions of sea animals.
In one of her demos, she lets shades of blue and green watercolor mingle to form a background, then layers an abstract design over it, using blue and white Posca markers.

Father Andrew Damick, one of the podcast interviewers, appears to keep an aquarium in his office. (Patience as an attribute of love surfaced during the Jackson interview.)

My white gel pens had been in various stages of drying out; this was partly an exercise in trying different methods to revive them. I used a few colors of Staedtler triplus fineliners, for the aquatic plants and jellyfish.

Focus objects

A few weeks ago I was homebound, ill; I drew my reading lamp, finding the curve of its adjustable neck interesting.
The lower sketch was influenced by the floral demo included in Ohn Mar Win’s Sketchbook Skool class. I had purchased a few spring bulbs, and was imagining how they would look in April.