Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay Inks

Several weeks ago I purchased a set of Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay Inks on a whim. As much as I've loved using black ink in under-paintings, I thought I'd give a colored ink under-painting a try. Yesterday was the day to give the idea a go.

The flower shape I was working on needed to be a bright, in-your-face red. Using deep red makes shadow areas harder to define so I did an underpainting with the Bombay shade, "Aqua," a nearly viridian shade of  green. It worked out beautifully. The ink was smooth, easy to use and dilute and accepted paint over the top well. I think it's a technique I'll be using again.

Thanks for stopping by! Alice

Painting Silver

Begun today, full sheet and fun!

The Old Home Place

Procrastination is one of my strengths- I'm fairly skilled at it. Case in point: my uncle asked me a looong time ago to paint the ranch house he and his 11 siblings grew up in, sending a photo along with his request. As soon as I saw the picture, I went into procrastination-full-power mode and put it on the back burner. The very far back burner. Painting someone's memories is scary, folks, and this old photo didn't give me much to go on!

Finally, this week I decided I'd better just get going. Sigh... Over the last few days my Dad got quite a few phone calls from me as I've tried to work out the details. (Possibly the toughest sketch I've ever done) Fortunately, Dad loved living out on the ranch and was able to give me lots of help. All that's left to do now is deliver it to my uncle on Monday and hope it fulfills his expectations. And swear to myself that I won't put things like this off ANYMORE. Really!

Thanks for stopping by- Alice

Autumn Hollyhocks, a Journal Page

We are staying at my sister's house before the next stage of our journey home from Alaska and Canada. Her hollyhocks are frozen back and browning, but the ends of the stalks are still flowering. Life strives on and it's beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by! Alice

O, Canada

One of the fun parts of travel is sketching what I see. We are currently driving down the Alcan Highway from Alaska, through Canada and home again. The road is pretty bad in many stretches which makes painting in the car tricky. However, the jumpy lines and paint splotches are part of the memories.