Captree State Park - Part 1

Yesterday was a mild day so I decided to head somewhere near the water and do some "solitary isolation" sketching from my mobile studio. I stuck a Stillman & Birn mixed toned paper sketchbook in my bag. I had used this sketchbook during the Urban Sketching Symposium in Amsterdam for the workshop I took with Pat Southern Pearce. The sketchbook I have has beige, black and gray paper.

I drove over to Captree State Park for inspiration and decided to do a double page spread in the sketchbook. Captree is known for the party fishing boats that leave from there. During the warmer months, there aren't too many of them at the dock because they are all out for the day with the fishermen. Yesterday there were lots of them, but the Island Princess caught my eye. I used watercolors, ink, white gouache, a white Signo gel pen, and a white Posca pen for this on grey paper.

Next I headed to the parking area where the boat launch area is. There was someone pulling their boat out of the water onto their trailer, but it didn't look like he would be there long enough for me to sketch him and his boat...and I was right. He was gone too quickly. So instead I did the water and the marshes in the bay. (This is the same bay where I did the sketches of the oystermen and the oyster dock this fall.)

 I will post more from there tomorrow.

Minimal Sketch Kit?

My friend, Tina Koyama did a post the other day about what is in her "minimal sketch kit." I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I am definitely not a minimalist kind of girl. Yes, I can go out with just a small sketchpad and a pen or pencil...but I usually don't. Last year I bought myself a pen/pencil case that can hold a variety of sketching materials that I can grab in an instant. Of course, being me, there are duplicates of some of the pens...after all what if one of them runs out? It could happen and has happened in the past. lol 

The problem for me is that I often haven't decided before I leave the house if I am just doing a quick sketch or a painting. So I want to make sure I have what I need...just in case. That means I usually drag along my backpack which has just about everything except the kitchen sink. On occasion I do go out with just the pencil case and one sketchbook.

The Lihit Lab Pen Case I use has several sections. In front there is room for my tiny palette. Then inside I have a variety of pens in the first two sections including a Lamy Safari, 2 Elegant Writer Pens, Uniball gel pens in white and gold, black uniball pens, a Japanese brush pen that I can refill, an Elizabeth & Company travel dagger brush, a sable travel brush, and a fountain pen I bought in this elegant pen store in Venice. Usually I reach for the Lamy Safari before anything else because it is filled with platinum carbon ink which is waterproof (in most situations). The back section has an eraser, pencils, sharpener and a water brush or two. Does it sound like I have enough to do some sketching?

Here is a sketch of the inside of the front section and labels to identify the kind of pen.

Here are a few photos to let you see what it actually looks like without using artistic license. lol
I'm not showing you the back which is just solid orange because it has a blot of ink that is almost half of the back. You can see a bit of the ink on the inside in the second photo down too. One of my pens leaked. Grrr!!!