Had dinner at Barcelona tonight, in Greenwich, Ct., and took the opportunity to sketch a few of the people in this cozy, convivial space. Even though the Pilot Varsity fountain pen's ink (this time I used the turquoise one) isn't waterproof, it doesn't dissolve completely when hit with watercolor. (The other was done with the Pitt Artist pen in black.)

As promised, here's a picture of the palette box. It uses three rows of plastic Prang kids' watercolor pans, emptied and refilled with tube colors -- some student grade, some artist grade. They just happened to fit perfectly into the aluminum palette box! (Yes, for some reason I didn't have alizarin crimson in a tube, so I inserted a Cotman half-pan in there for that color and the white for the time being.)

A lot of new stuff to play with! First, after being outbid twice on eBay for a set of 24 Schmincke watercolors, I decided to make my own box of two dozen colors as a temporary solution. Here's the palette -- I'll post a picture of the actual box later, which was made by taking apart three cheap Prang 8-pan kids' sets from Staples and gouging out the colors before refilling them from tubes and snapping them into an alumnium palette box that I happened to have bought last year at a garage sale. No Schmincke, of course, and a lot of them are student grade Cotman and Grumbacher, but at least it expands my range of color options for the moment.

I also bought a couple of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens. The ink that they come with is not waterproof, which makes for some interesting effects. They're also (unintentionally) refillable, apparently, so I might try replacing the ink later on.

Drove to New Paltz, N.Y., this morning to explore the town. After lunch at Village Tea Room, M. biked to Rosendale while I hit the shops. As in Hastings-on-Hudson, it was too cold to wander outdoors for too long so I settled on a faded couch with a pot of tea at Muddy Cup Coffee House and sketched the artsy young types that were there. (Pentel brush pen & watercolor in Hand-Book journal.) After M. was done biking, we drove a little into the Shawangunk Mountains and ogled the gorgeous scenery before heading back home.

Here's a sampling of the lovely scenery in these mountains. We definitely want to go back in the spring or summer, when we can explore the area further and spend more time outdoors. It's only an hour and a half away, after all.