watercolor suggestion

August 10th rocks and melon sketch 

Rocks and melon sketch pen & in with watercolors

garden studio: with journal, sketchbook, pens, water-brush, round watercolor palette and coffee

Yesterday I got up late and went outside to write in my journal. I wasn't inspired to try to draw any of the flowers. I walked around looking for a subject, I bent down to turn the mysterious fruit that has been slowly growing in the banana tree pot all summer and it came loose from the dying vine in my hand. I had been thinking about drawing my big river rocks which I use on my table to prop up my books when I write. I thought to myself "how about adding in this colorful melon or squash in with the rocks?" Done, decision made,  I sat and drew it with the same sepia ink I use every morning to draw the flowers. I added colors from my limited round palette box, made the photos and rushed inside to go get them downloaded and put on the Internet. This is part of my daily routine this summer. Only change was the subject from flowers to rocks and fruits of the garden.

Later in the day I got a great comment from my pal Tom Palmer who saw the sketch on face book. He suggested " wonder how this would look if you just drew light pencil lines, then erased them. Probably like a watercolor!" I thought about it and realized that in the morning I move very much on rote routines. I always use the same materials and same books and usually draw the same places and subjects. Clearly it was time to think about a change. I have a full watercolor palette and I have been thinking about using it more but it is much larger than the portable round palette I normally use and a little less convenient to tote down to the garden. Today I switched back to the big palette and the subject of river rocks. I have been collecting daily on my walks. I started collecting them for our flower garden's wet spot by the drain spouts. I often leave the rocks washed up just sitting around the house and garden before I install them in the garden spot by the downspout.  I collect them for a solid mulch that won't wash away in a heavy downpour. I enjoy touching these rocks and looking at them carefully and thinking about how they can be arranged. Today river rocks feels like a new drawing series theme that might be a good transition to more abstracted simple paintings.

I tried the real watercolors and the small rocks I had on the table inside. My sketch paper isn't very friendly to real watercolors which are much wetter than what I normally use. Pencil lines from my drafting mechanical pencil are very fine and precise. Don't show up in the finished product even without erasing the they are faint. Thanks to Tom I took a step outside of my routine. I am happy and I noticed that my partner's flower arrangement today also features rocks! He likes collecting them too. Check out his arrangement today 8-11-2011 to see how he uses rocks with flowers and on the 10th a mystery fruit. Keith Stanley's 365 days of ikebana arrangements

set up on the table inside studio

Here is my set up today. Inside the porch studio which is delightfully cool this morning, with coffee and a fan to help blow the wet watercolor dry as I worked.

 round river rocks Aug. 11th 2011

river rocks Aug. 11th 2011