3 works hanging.

I gave these 3 works to hang on walls.

83rd street.

Quick sketch from the car on the way from the store, where I was choosing decorative pillows. What a nice house, I wanted to go there again and do a serious detailed study. Ink.

Sketching Upstate.

The weekend Upstate turned into learning and reading sessions. Had to be quick, before the dusk made everything black. Used this flat brush the most. Paper allows lots of water, but drying makes me impatient. 

I drew from the car, because I forgot the chair home. Was not sure that it is not private property. The farm, which we call "Children of the corn farm", after a scary movie, was across the road.

Far away young cattle was relaxing, black cows, but one young bull kept coming towards me and yelling, scaring me and echo was even more threatening. I was trying to capture big relationships of sky, ground and water, and different greens. Funny, I always include so much in composition, that it is hard to get to details and still I can't be satisfied with the result, I want it more simple or something more detailed. May be this why I felt the need to use a pen. 

Interesting, that this watercolor had a big respond on Facebook. Next time I want to paint sky wet-on-wet and be braver with it.

Sketching in Morikami Japanese garden in Delray Beach, Florida, with 2 flat brushes and Rembrandt watercolor.

I finally got to try this 2 flat brushes, I wanted for a long time. Synthetic Da Vinci wash brushes. I used vintage Rembrandt watercolor in Zeta sketchbook, which was my companion on my trip to Florida.
Japanese garden was perfect place for it, every corner looked beautiful, I think, I could spend a month there sketching non-stop and learning.

Bamboo trees, small bridges, lake, waterfalls, rocks.

It takes around 2 hours to walk around, to look at the museum with clothes and examples of a life style from Japan at the beginning of the century.

Quick sketch in Zeta sketchbook, with beer and old squirrel brush.

Quick sketch before the dusk. Used big old flat squirrel brush in Zeta sketchbook, it got dark momentarily, but at least I didn't finish my beer with lemon and and a friend was still singing and playing guitar near the fire.

Another one from my daughter's balcony, also using this big brush and a bit of an outliner from my last butch of pens from JetPens. Mountains different every time I look at them. Magic.

Sketching table with vintage Rembrandt watercolor in Zeta sketchbook.

It was no time to go anywhere, so I looked at one of my favorite spots, wooden table in a shadow, where we had so many memorable breakfasts with friends and family. I used Zeta sketchbook by Stillman & Birn, paper is so strong and takes a lot of washes. It was wonderful to use real brushes: mop brush, Da Vinci Kolinsky, another tiny Da Vinci travel brush. The assignment I gave to myself was to start from big washes and layer it leaving some parts untouched, getting only big shapes. Also I was trying to use Marc Taro's advice to spend more time on drawing.

Scanner ate up blues, so it is more bold than in reality. It is time to get a new scanner, but I have other priorities now.
I love learning, so this conversations with myself, involving pencil and watercolor (in this case vintage Rembrandt, I got on UK Ebay), following particular decision, makes me happy and takes my mind off everyday's problems. I still overdid it, I should've finish more foliage on the top. I am totally avoiding to do a "pretty" picture, only following my own instruction.

Forth of July weekend.

I felt I overworked it a bit. Zeta sketchbook by Stillman & Birn, vintage Rembrandt watercolors, hot weather, Hunter Lake.

Flowers.

Wonderful day.

I miss drawing so much, that managed to draw in traffic coming back from the country. Just to hold the pencil is a happy moment.

Sketching with watercolor.

On Sunday morning we got Maggie's breakfast from Krooked cafe in Tannersville, the best breakfast in the world. Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, a little bit of home fries, salad and few slices of fruits.

Sketched on the porch  with watercolors while waiting.  Struggled with small water brush, wishing I'll have my regular brushes with me.

We had a little sketch crawl afternoon. Lake was beautiful and all sad thoughts vanished for a while.

Here is my sketch. Really need to carry with me bigger brushes.

Autoshop.

Sketched in the morning in Autoshop, while guys look for that sensor. I think it is a bit too much  of adventures one after another for me. Running around, planning, talking, fixing, driving, renting, leasing, but all I want to sit somewhere in the corner with my inks and sketchbook... My 80-yearold pencil in brown book.

Bag and snow blizzard.

I drew here bag I took with me Upstate and on the top is my new pencil with level in it, old, with 1.18 mm lead, very cute, it says "Monroe" on the clip. I was thinking it could be useful while drawing architecture, but honestly I am used to trust my eye more than measuring.  We got into the middle of snow blizzard coming back home from Upstate, it took us 10 hours of driving, 4 bags of pretzel sandwiches with cheddar and tones of music on Ipod. We saw so many accidents, cars stuck in snow, helpless people, but it was amazing too me that everyone was kind and nice to each other, strangers. Going into Verrazano was the scariest, total mess of skidding cars, trucks, people and deep snow masses.  Kind truck let us pass through to the safer grounds. And at  2 in the morning Brooklyn looked like a scene from the horror movie with snow covered streets and abandoned busses and cars in the middle of the roads, here and there people unable to part with their beloved cars. Tomorrow going there again.

McDonald Ave in Brooklyn.

McDonald Ave under the  F train.  Industrial street with auto shops, tire shops, metal work, heating supplies. Was waiting for Alex. Trying to use Kuretake 13 in Moleskine plain sketchbook.

Polish lady.

Chocolate Derwent pencil in Moleskine plain. Something special about this Derwent pencils, it seems to have such a huge range of tones.  My love for England keep growing.

Tried to color in PS.

Sheepshead Bay.

Train station. Kuretake 13 in Moleskine plain and a little bit of woodless pencils. Running, running.

Sketching on the way.

Instead of going home right away I sketched from the car on Ave R in Brooklyn. It was really fun, and day seemed a bit longer.

I was longing for drawing, so pulled out my Moleskine plain everywhere I went. This why small sketches overlapping each other.

Ticket.

As I  always say,  try to find positive outcome in any situation or  circumstance, I was trying to use ticket  as a subject for sketching, you can see my teethmarks  on the bottom of the paper, so it was not that easy. Corner of Bedford Ave in Brooklyn.  Ball pen Pieni in pocket Moleskine.

Room in sepia tones.

Sketching at lunch.

I miss scribbling in my Moleskine.

More Subway sketches this time with texture on the top.

It has shimmer, didn't show.

B Train.

Ink, touch of old Pelikan paint in pocket Moleskine.

At dusk.

78 street in Brooklyn. NY. I decide to fool around with colored pencils on the top of my beloved ink. And The was unnecessary. :-)