Took the 2-1/2 hour trip up and back on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in NH on Saturday. We rode in the train with the biodiesel engine, but we got to see the traditional steam engines puffing away. It was quite a warm day, even in the White Mountains, but it was rather chilly at the summit!

A quick sketch done a little over a week ago, while waiting for dessert to arrive at Saltwater Grille.

Another sketch from the "Julius Caesar" performance:
















And a quick sketch of the The Majestic movie theater in Stamford that I did tonight while waiting for M to drive up in the car after dinner at Ferrante:

















(Lamy Safari with Noodler's ink in Lexington Grey, in Moleskine sketchbook)

Went to see this year's Shakespeare on the Sound production of "Julius Caesar" in Rowayton on Wednesday -- the only night Weather.com forecasted no potential shower activity. The production was lovely as usual, and our green beach chairs were very comfortable. I was glad I had reread most of the play beforehand (squinting at the online full text on my BlackBerry on the train to and from work, but still).

The temps soared into the 90s today, so we headed to the beach. M kayaked while I sketched this reader relaxing in his beach chair. I'm still getting used to the intensity of the W&N Artist's watercolors -- they're also harder to regulate with a waterbrush.















(Lamy Safari w/ Noodler's Ink in Lexington Gray, with Winsor & Newton watercolor added with waterbrush.)

Flew out to Los Angeles for the weekend -- gorgeous weather, and amazingly functional public transportation in most areas. I can see why people live in SoCal. Really.

Pasadena, where we stayed, and South Pasadena, a few stops down the Gold Line, are nice, walkable areas that don't feel too sprawly unless you're close to the freeways. Here's a sketch I did while waiting for the Gold Line train to Highland Park to visit a childhood friend:















Did a quick one of a few cyclists as they went through the intersection:
















We went to brunch at Firefly Bistro on El Centro Street, right near the Mission train station, where there was live music and very yummy food. Did a quick sketch of the guitarist while waiting for our entrees.
















(Lamy Safari w/ Noodler's Ink in Lexington Gray, and Winsor & Newton watercolors added afterward.)

Since it was such a nice day yesterday, we decided to go to Weir Farm in Wilton, CT, after lunch. M would bike and I would sketch. It started off fine -- I decided to try out my brand-new red Lamy Safari extra-fine point fountain pen with Noodler's ink in Lexington Grey (hat tip to Nina Johansson) in a Moleskine sketchbook. But then I decided to try to color it in with my new Winsor & Newton watercolors, freshly bought from Cass on my trip to London. Bad idea. The watercolor beads on the Moleskine sketchbook surface, or worse, becomes gouachey and weird. I knew I shouldn't have done this -- I'd read countless posts on how the sketchbook pages don't really like w/c... but I guess I had to prove it for myself. And I did. If I had just left the line drawing alone, it would have been much better. And then I hated the w/c so much that I scribbled all over it with Pitt Artist pen in black. Ugh.

Just got back from our two-week trip to London, Delhi, Bangalore, Coorg, and Bombay! Lots of fun, wonderful food, totally exhausting! Did more sketching in London as the weather was on the cooler side. India was experiencing a heat wave, so it was more conducive to photography than sketches, unfortunately. Here's what I did on the trip.

First up, a view of the stalls at London Book Fair:












Next, Temple Church near the Inns of Court:













Camden Passage antiques market in Islington:















A slice of Kensington Gardens:













And finally, from India, a view from the coffee plantation estate we stayed at in Polibetta (Coorg):

Had too much stuff to do at home, so decided to do Sketchcrawl here in CT instead of joining the NYC bunch. Started off at the Harry Bennett branch of the Ferguson Library:







Then we went to dinner and a jazz performance at the Silvermine Tavern in Norwalk:

Had dinner at Capriccio Cafe on 2/24, and could see the local officials and well-heeled guests arriving for the Oscar party at the Avon Theatre across the street. Sketched the scene between pasta and dessert; had to split the scene in two because it wouldn't all fit on the page to scale. (The tent was really below/in front of the theatre part.) Lots of lovely gowns and dapper tuxes.

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.

Went to Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., this afternoon, so M. could bike on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail before our dinner at Harvest on Hudson. I wanted to check out the shops in the town but everything except for the bookstore was closed -- and even that is up for sale. After spending as much time as I could at the bookstore, I walked to Harvest and sat in the lobby, from which I sketched the view toward the kitchen. (Pitt Artist pen in Hand-Book journal with watercolor added later.)

I finally attended my first Sketchcrawl last Saturday. Although I didn't actually see anyone else at the meeting place at 11 a.m. (the lobby kiosk at the Met), I did end up wandering about the museum sketching by myself. I've posted some of my results on the Sketchcrawl Forum; here's one that I did in the Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Arms & Armor Court, using a Pentel brush pen, with watercolor added later on, during the train ride back to Stamford. (NB: I would pay good money to see Mayor Mike in a suit of armor...)

Since this was one of the last pages of my Moleskine watercolor notebook, I decided I would try out a couple of alternatives for my next sketchbook: A Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal and Hand-Book Journal Co. sketchbook. I'd heard good things about both. Here are some of my test sketches:
The Fabriano Quadrato's paper is extremely thin. Although the Staedtler watercolor pencil marks appeared fine, even the slightest touch of the waterbrush caused the paper to buckle quite quickly, so I gave up on using water. I think I'll have to stick to pen, pencil, and color pencil in this notebook.



Next, I tried adding watercolor to a pencil sketch of a crabapple twig in the Hand-Book sketchbook. It, too, has very thin pages and curls quickly.



Watercolor pencil didn't fare much better in the Hand-Book -- I drew the anemone with a Pitt Artist pen and used watercolor pencil before adding a bit of water. It, too, made the page curl quite a bit.


So, while I'll use both of these on and off, I've decided to stick with the Moleskine watercolor notebooks for now -- they seem to be the right size for my little bag and are of a heavier weight than these.