Patterns

Overhead at Ancient Faith Women's Conference, a couple of months ago. The words stuck with me.

Christmas comes once more

Most of my recent sketching has been in five minutes grabbed here and there.


Culver's often has a few fun seasonal decorations.
We spent time in a waiting room with three themed Christmas trees, each with a colorful topper: a snowman, a star, a crown.

Christmas mantel

I think I've sketched part of this mantel each of the past four or five Advent seasons. This time, I layered pastel pencil over parts of the drawing.

Waiting rooms

Waiting tree

Waiting lamp

The Christmas tree in the upper sketch was ornamented only with pine cones, a third of the way through December. Was the decorating finished, or was more to come?
Both of these sketches may have been better balanced if I hadn't cropped identifying details.

Star

Someone recently gave me a belated Christmas gift, a chocolate-filled star, another reminder of the Nativity story. The candy, wrapped in colorful foil, was delicious. Now I will remember it for years.

I sketched very little the week or two after Christmas. Then, my Lamy Joy fountain pen appeared to have become clogged. Maybe I left it lying flat too long? I rinsed it; it revived, but reluctantly, scratching, skipping. I gave it a break and used a few other pens for a week or so: the Platinum Carbon, the new Lamy Safari (stilled filled with a cartridge of water-soluble ink), the tinted Uniball Vision Elite.

Then the light returned; the days got longer. Suddenly, the Lamy Joy began writing smoothly again. The line seems a bit wider. The right, familiar tools make a big difference in comfort and keeping a habit.
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Today is a gold star day: the three-year anniversary of my beginning to keep an illustrated journal. My first drawing was a tiny thumbnail sketch of our poster of the Grand Haven pier.

Poinsettia

Cabin fever

Ornament doodles

In which I riff on Koosje Koene's ornament patterns. Also inspired by December welcomes being found across the bullet journal community this week.

Playing with red shades of gouache, Uniball Vision Elite fine liner, and pastel pencils. If I had a larger stock of pastels, I may have achieved better color harmony, with the holly. This looks a little messy, but I like it anyway. You can do what you want in your sketchbook!

Amigos

Christmas view, from La Chatelaine