Daily Doodle Journal

In the beginning of this year I picked up a small Moleskine calendar book and decided to use it as a daily doodle journal. Surprisingly, I've been keeping up with it fairly regularly. There were a few days that I didn't do a doodle but lately it's turned into a habit. For the past two days I'm sketching whatever pen I'm using for the day but I'll be able to go back in the year and also see when the dow hit it's all time high, when I went to Palm Springs, when a package of Donut Shop coffee arrived or when it was just a doodle day. Fun stuff for sure.  

Air Museum

It was a beautiful day to visit the Palm Springs Air Museum. I got a chance to draw two of the old but still functional WWII planes. I took more pictures so I'm sure they'll be converted into sketches sometime in the future.

I used my liquid and graphite pencils then added a touch of blue sky with watercolors.

Weekend In The Desert

I love driving to Palm Springs for a long weekend. We left on Friday and stayed at a different hotel since Harley was coming along (Ziggy went to his favorite Doggy Camp place to stay). I'm always amazed with the hotels that allow dogs but have a weight limit of something very small like 12 lbs. Fortunately, I found this place that had no limit plus there was a large grassy area for dogs to play and run around. Needless to say, Harley had a great time and we'll be returning to that place again I'm sure.
So first the room and below is the cabana done with water colors and ink and below is the grassy area done with water colors and my new Sharpie liquid pencil that I was trying out.

I'll be using the liquid pencil again. It erases easy, allows for highlighting, and it works well with the water. I do see some lead spotting on the drawings but not to a point where it's bothersome to me. It's another fun tool for my collection and use.

Big Wave

Gus and Milo relaxing on the beach....until Milo sees the big wave.

Virtual Elba

I'm still having problems with the link on google maps for the Virtual Paintout so this one might not show up on that blog. Once of these days I'll get it right again. It would be so fun to actually go to these places each month. Maybe San Diego will get picked one day then I'll be able to paint on location.

Close Up Challenge

This months Sketchbook Challenge was zooming in for a Close Up. I sat very close to my five foot high cactus that I planted in the back yard six years ago. It didn't take me long to actually see the symmetry in nature.  This was one of my favorite challenges.

Ocean Beach, CA

 I spent an extra long weekend at Ocean Beach to do nothing but taking walks on the beach, relaxing, sketching, walking some more, reading and napping.

 This is a sketch of the room and it was done after a very long walk on the beach. Harley is getting her first nap in of the weekend. My brother gave me money for supplies a while ago so I stopped in at Blicks in San Diego to look around and of course pick up some new things. This was done in my Moleskine with a new red ink pen a long with a set of Derwent Inktesnse pencils. Maybe I'm not using the pencils correctly,  I'll have to check to see if there are any instructions on utube.

This bus wasn't exactly what I had in mind that I'd be painting this weekend. I found it parked along side the beach parking lot and decided to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did because the following day it was gone to its next destination.  Ink and watercolors in my 6x8 Stillman&Birn Alpha (which is becoming my favorite journal book)

 

 This is the sketch I started sitting at the dog beach. I still have to finish it, add more dogs and people then color. My two dogs were needing my attention at the time. They loved the beach. Harley had been there before so she was a pro at beach walking and getting her feet wet in the ocean. Ziggy was a little apprehensive at first but with the help of Harley, he was soon zooming around the beach, digging for gold and just being a happy beach dog. I told my partner that we're going to begin taking a monthly day trip to this beach. It was great watching the dogs have so much fun.