Inktober - Day 30 & 31 and Meeting a Friend

I am behind again because we have been so busy lately. First of all, here is my Inktober sketch for Day 30. It was done quickly at the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio while Mike, Jerry and I were having margaritas while waiting for our river tour boat.
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Then yesterday, I went to La Villita which is in the same area near the Riverwalk. It is a historic arts village with shops and galleries in the buildings that were part of the early settlement of San Antonio over 300 years ago.

The BEST PART of the day however, was meeting my friend, Jo Castillo. Check out her work at https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com. Jo is a wonderful pastel artist who lives in Texas. We have been internet friends through an art blog for more than 10 years. She drove down from her town to meet me for lunch. We did a lot of talking and even did a a bit of sketching. It was so much fun to meet her! Those of us who are friends through the internet mostly know snippets about each other's lives. It was great to find out more about Jo and her family. Here we are in front of some of the Day of the Dead art on display at La Villita,  and then in front of a mural in Mi Tierra, the Mexican restaurant where we ate in Market Square.  My thanks to Jo for making the trip down and making the day so special! Too bad the day went so fast.

I love how the internet has made it possible to be friends with people from all over the world, but it is so special to meet some of the people in real life. I have been lucky to meet several of them that way too.

Here is my final sketch for Inktober done at La Villita where Jo and I stopped to sketch a bit. It was a madhouse with huge crowds and lots of booths with all kids of art and merchandise. We found some chairs on the lawn in front of the River Art Group Gallery and the person in the gallery let us sit out of the crowd to sketch. 

Here are some decorated pumpkins that were for sale. Aren't they great?

There was a Day of the Dead Parade with people dressed in all kinds of costumes. There was music and dancing too.

I think everyone had a great time. I know I did!

Inktober - Day 29

I don't usually post this early in the day, but we have a full day here in San Antonio today. We are having lunch at someone's house (if she hasn't gone into labor by that time), followed by a bit of sightseeing (maybe), and an Octoberfest this evening. So I'm afraid that if I don't post now it will be midnight before I get to it.
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Inktober - Days 27 & 28 & Cats

Yesterday we were in transit from Itasca down to San Antonio. Then we met with friends and never got on the internet, so no posting yesterday. I did a few more sketches at the ranch for Day 27& 28.

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This is Wally's barn. I love places like this!

Here's the side door to the house.

The momma cat (white) had 5 kittens who spend a lot of time napping. I found these three huddled together.

Inktober - Day 26 & Back Deck with 4 Cats

On the ranch there are some animals, and since I'm rarely anywhere with animals I'm trying to sketch some of them. Inktober's Day 26 is a longhorn cow. They are always busy eating so they stand in pretty much the same position for a while. This was done with my twig.

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There are a lot of cats and kittens around. I was told they help keep the rodents away from the house. Here is the back deck with four cats. Can you find the 4th one? She's hiding.

Inktober - Day 25 & Itasca View

We have arrived in Texas...Yee-Hah! We left Arkansas this morning, but I made sure to do an Inktober sketch there yesterday to post today. This was done at the breakfast area of the Hampton Inn where we were staying.

It has been 8 years since we have been down to visit my husband's friend, Wally and his family in Itasca. They live on a ranch here. I sat outside to paint the view through the corral to the hills beyond.

Inktober - Day 24

We are presently in Hope, Arkansas...will be in Texas tomorrow.

Yesterday when we stopped in Dickson, TN I asked if there was a downtown area nearby. Even after sitting in the car for nearly 8 hrs I got back in and drove a few more minutes. The downtown stores weren't open because it was Sunday, but I did find one shop that had a fun look to it...and merchandise outside even though they were closed. I did my Inktober sketch, but then I just had to add color. So here it is in just ink.

And here it is with the color added.

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Inktober 23

As I said yesterday, we are on the road heading to Texas. Right now we are in Dickson, TN with another 7 hours behind us. We are more than half way to our first destination in Texas. My Inktober 23 was sketched in the lobby of the Hampton Inn where we stayed last night.

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Inktober - Day 22

I am on the road right now heading to Texas. We are going to visit some friends down there, make a stop in Nashville on the way back, and finally visit family in Georgia before heading back home. So my sketching and painting may not be as prolific as usual. lol Maybe tomorrow I'll do a little painting while Jerry is driving.
My Inktober #22 sketch was done yesterday down along the water in Patchogue and I finished it just before it started to rain. We hardly had any rain the entire summer but that's how our road trip started today...rain from home until the middle of Pennsylvania. Right now we are in Roanoke, Va where it is much colder than I expected!!!
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Inktober - Day 21 & Central Park Boat Basin

This sketch was done at Sunken Meadow State Park. This is a favorite rock of the birds there.

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This is the third sketch I did in Central Park last weekend. We sat right by the boat basin and the remote control boats were fun to watch.

Inktober - Day 20 & City Building

I can't believe Inktober is nearly 2/3 gone already. I did another sketch using my handy twig. This was done down by the beach in Sayville.

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 Below is another view I did from the Conservatory Garden looking out toward Fifth Ave. The building was just barely peeking out above the trees.

Inktober - Day 19 & Central Park I

Yesterday my plein air group was painting at a farm stand out in Wading River. My painting isn't quite finished so I will post that in the future. When I packed up for the day I grabbed by sketchbook to do my Inktober 19 sketch. One of my artist friends was still working at her easel so I sketched her.

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On Sunday 2 friends and I went into the city to Central Park to sketch. We started out at the Conservatory Garden, a formal garden up along 5th Ave and 105 St. It had a lot of pretty views.

Inktober - Day 18 & Painting in Greenport

Here is another ink sketch done with a stick. The different edges of the whittled point give different textures. It is a fun way to work.This was sketched at The Grange in Sayville which has replicas of some historical buildings.

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When I post the Inktober sketches I keep forgetting to also post the sketches/paintings I am doing in addition to the Inktober ones. My friend and I went out to Greenport which is on the tip of the north fork of Long Island. There is a nice area with a boatyard but it was just too windy to sit there. We decided to sketch houses instead. There are some great ones in the town.

Inktober Days 16 & 17

Somehow I missed posting yesterday's Inktober sketch, so I'll do two today.

This was sketched by the Sayville dock using a stick (really a chopstick that I had whittled to a point). I wanted to see if I got better results using the narrow tip than I had been getting with the original twig I was using. The jury is still out. lol

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This was sketched in the Conservancy Garden in Central Park and is part of a sculpture around a fountain there. I used my preppie pen with permanent ink as well as my Elegant Writed to get some bleeding for shading.

Inktober - Day 15 - On the LIRR

These sketches were done while riding into NYC on the Long Island Railroad. I left them as simple ink and wash sketches with no added color.

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Inktober - Day 14 - Suffolk County Farm

Both of these sketches were done at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank. Birds really don't stay still for too long. These were constantly eating and turning around. Of course when I got there I realized I didn't have my brown ink pen which would have been perfect for the star in front. Instead I used a gold gel pen with water to give his feathers a little color.

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And of course I had to do a real color version. I did this as a sketch directly in watercolors.

Inktober - Day 13

Here is another twig drawing I did. This one was on the grounds of the Maritime Museum in Sayville across a double spread in one of my notebooks. The ink on the twig is sometimes unpredictable and leaves splotches where you don't actually want them.

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Inktober - Day 12 - Andrews Farm

These were both done at Andrews Farm in Wading River. They have always been so welcoming to artists who come to sketch or paint. I did the ink-only sketch first starting with the umbrella because I just knew Denise would come an open it before I was done. Sure enough she did open the umbrella and moved around the gooseneck squash that look like a pile of large worms. lol

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Next I pulled out my watercolors because the scene was just crying out for color. Of course the open red umbrella just sets it off nicely.

Inktober - Day 10 in Greenport

Greenport is at the eastern end of the north fork of Long Island and is a great place for sketching and painting, with all the great shops and houses there. My sketch for Day 10 of Inktober is of a vespa parked on the street. I always think of vespas and picture them red, but this one was a very sedate white color which was very pretty. I used permanent ink to sketch it, but made sure it touch the ink with water before it dried in each section.

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I was out there with my friend, Susan and our plan was to either sketch at the boat yard or sketch the homes there. It was windy and cold in the morning, especially by the boat yard, so we found a street with some lovely houses like this one. When I saw the shadows on the porch I knew I had to do this one.

Inktober - Day 10

I needed an indoor sketch for today so I searched for some of my broken shells that I've collected down at Springmaid Beach when I go down for the watercolor workshops that I take in March. That area was hit hard by the hurricane the other day and part of the pier there was destroyed. :(

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Inktober - Day 9

Yesterday they were forecasting showers in the afternoon, so I headed out in the morning to get some artwork done. I did my Inktober sketch at the Caroline Church of Brookhaven in East Setauket that was established in 1729. I used the Elegant Writer to get the washy effects.

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There was also a big farmstand in the area that had a nice pumpkin display, so I sat there and painted this.

Inktober - Day 8

This was sketched using sienna colored ink from the set of little bottles I have and one of the glass pens that came with it. I bought these golden beets at a farmers market the other day. I hope to do a watercolor of them before they go bad or I cook them. lol

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I posted this on Facebook this morning and someone asked what kind of pen was made of glass. Here is a photo of the pens and the set they came in.The threads at the end of the pen hold the ink as you sketch or write.

Inktober - Day 7

This sketch was done at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. I have followed the work of Ch'ng Kiah Kiean from Malaysia who sketches with a twig and Chinese ink. I tried sketching with a twig before with very limited results, so I want to try a few during the Inktober challenge. This is the first one I did this month using a semi-sharpened twig and black ink. I am fairly happy with the results so I will be doing more of these.
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Inktober - Day 6

Today's Inktober sketch is of my flowers in a vase. I used mostly Faber Castell pens in sanguine with the darks done with my brown Le Pen.

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Inktober - Day 5

I used a combination of my Elegant Writer and a brown Tombow to do this sketch of a turtle at the Quogue Wildlife Center. Although you can't tell from the sketch...he was big, probably the size of a seat cushion.

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Inktober - Day 4

I love ink pens that bleed and can be used for shading, like the Tombow that I used for this. I did this sketch from my car at the Timber Ridge Golf Course parking lot in Great River. I was hoping to see some golfers that I could sketch into it, but they were too far away...same for the golf carts.

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Inktober - Day 3

I sketched this while I got ready to start my day. It was done with a brown Le Pen which turns a lovely burgundy color when you wet it.

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