Cutlery Bag I Drew On Ink and Watercolor

Chris and I went to St. Petersburg a few weekends ago to visit a favorite bookstore, Haslam's, eat lunch at one of Florida's fun and kitschy restaurants, Fourth Street Shrimp Store and to look for a new freezer to replace the one that died a month ago.

It wasn't too long after we sat down at the Shrimp Store that I realized I had left my sketchbook on the table next to the couch where I'd been working in it the night before.

Fourth Street Shrimp Store is full of fun wall art, license plates, and lots of old antiques. LOTS of Florida kitsch! There's even some ancient taxidermy sprinkled here and there. It's not a good place to go without a sketchbook in hand.

I immediately started looking for another piece of paper to sketch on—in my purse and on the table. I was even eyeing the waitress' order book.

My eye happened to land on the little bag the restaurant used for the cutlery and I pounced on it. My concern was that it might be covered with a waxy coating, but it wasn't. I was back in business!

Spotting an old paddle that seemed to be the perfect subject matter for my long, narrow bag, I got down to sketching. However, lunch came before I put down very much info, so I put the little bag away to finish it later.

Turns out later was several days later and the paper bag had gotten quite beat up and folded tumbling around in my purse.

I added the logo and shrimp before I added watercolor to the paper. I really wasn't sure how it would take paint, but it worked great. If it had not, I would have used color pencils or left it as black ink.

One I was done with the artwork, I glued the end of the bag into my sketchbook and then folded the rest of the bag in an accordion fold so it would fit in the book. By seizing the bag, I was able to seize the opportunity to sketch!

What To Do When You Don't Have Access To Your Sketchbook
Don't be discouraged by the fact that you left the darn sketchbook at home or you're stuck in some long-winded meeting—where there's a will, there's a way!

Instead, look around for another piece of paper to scribble on. Don't hesitate to ask if you don't have anything useable.

In a restaurant: don't overlook placemats! They're often paper and there is seldom printing on the back. I do recommend staying away from menus unless you ask as the restaurants usually have a limited number on hand. Ask if they have a carryout menu instead.

In a meeting: scribble and draw in the margins or over any part that is irrelevant to you and what you need to know. You can always go prepared to the meeting with extra paper than can be glued into your sketchbook later. I do suggest keeping it out of sight as it can be disconcerting to others when they see you drawing over your handouts or in your day planner. I had to explain more than once that I wasn't goofing off, but actually paying attention. (I always retained more and listened better when I drew!)

Try to use permanent ink as paper that does not qualify as "sketchbook paper." Menus and receipts are usually printed on very, inexpensive paper and will not hold up under a lot of erasing or water. If the ink feathers, try using a ball point pen instead. If the paper doesn't like water at all, use colored pencils if you want to add a touch of color.

The same little bag glued down to the page in an accordion fold. No Name/Brand Sketchbook

Consider whether or not you want to add the new piece to your sketchbook. Chances are excellent the paper is not 100% cotton rag and will begin to yellow and oxidate over time. In other words, it's not going to be archival. This may or may not affect your other pages and or sketches. It's for you to decide based on what your sketchbook's purpose is.

Sketching on unexpected and untried surfaces can be a lot of fun and lead to results you would never expect. You may decide it's more fun to sketch on "found" ephemera than in an actual sketchbook. If an experiment doesn't turn out, what have you lost? Probably not as much as you gained!

Tribute to a fun day Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook Watercolor and ink

Valentine's Day has always been a minefield for dating couples or those who have just broken up or those who have just gotten together. Add that to the pressures of Madison Avenue to buy bigger, better, sparklier things and it becomes a hated holiday. And that pressure is also felt by those who are alone and would rather not be!

Chris and I don't ignore the holiday as we both feel it's nice to recognize each other, but nor do we get caught in the "Hallmark Trap" of trying to make it picture perfect with just the right card, gift and activities for the day.

As it turned out, this year's Day of Love came about as something a little more special than the usual with a surprise gift (for me, that I adore), a great movie (Kingman: The Secret Service), lunch with friends, discovery of a cool, new shop near the theater with some fun new finds for decorating our home!

Detail of journal page

They were giving out roses at the new store, so another surprise—two white roses. Not only have they opened, but Moby and her holy terror tactical team have left them alone! (UPDATE: I spoke to soon—we awoke this morning to find one of the roses visiting the floor.)

Lastly, we ended our outing at Ruby Tuesday's. We wanted to sit out on the patio because it was jam-packed inside and very, very noisy. After we were seated we heard others complaining about the 45-minute wait. Because we opted for the patio, which we had all to ourselves, we didn't wait at all!

That's when we remembered it was Valentine's Day. Oops. I assure you that had that little piece of info crossed either of our minds, we've gone home and rewarmed the leftover pizza.

Our waitress asked us how long we'd been together and of all the folks she'd served, we had been together the longest (22 years and counting).

I decided to put together a journal spread for the day and it became very busy, very quickly.

To help make the text flow…wait. Stop. Let me back up first.

The first thing I did was kind of a quick pencil layout where I wanted all the items. I then laid down a piece of the drywall patch* that I've seen used by others to help with the journaling.

I'm sad to say, it left a very nasty glue residue all over the page which would not be picked up by a kneaded eraser nor a plastic one. Grrrrrr!

Detail of the page

I decided to keep going, sans drywall patch, and just wing the journaling. To better help the text flow (which really had no flow), I decided to add the arrows in a different ink color.

I added the movie ticket, a logo from a bag from the new store and RT's logo to offset the art and journaling. It was a busy day and I kinda like that the page is busy as well.

After nearly completing the spread, I began to think of a few more things I wanted to capture and added them in yet another ink color.

A fabulous day all the way around!

I hope your Valentine's Day was a special treat as well.

*While the patch did not work out for me this time, I will try it again. If you want to give this a whirl, I STRONGLY suggest you adhere the patch to a piece of fabric (that you don't care about!) several times BEFORE you press it down to your page.

UPDATED to include text from cemetery page at the bottom of post.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 Watercolor and Ink Drawn on location

Those raindrops I mentioned in the last NOLA post? Well, they were a little more serious come Wednesday morning. We walked to the street trolley and had to open our umbrellas about two books from our stop. By the time we actually reached our stop, it had stopped sprinkling again.

We loaded up onto the trolley and hadn't gone more than 3 blocks when the bottom opened up and it really rained! That, however, was the last of it. We arrived at the cemetery with gray, overcast skies which seemed rather appropriate for the morning's adventure!

There is a lot of information about the "cities of the dead," the above ground crypts and the traditions of New Orleans when it comes to honoring the dead on the page above. Please click to enlarge so that you can read more if you're interested.

MORE Decadent Desserts—Commander Palace Style Memory Sketch Watercolor Click to Enlarge

Next came our three hour lunch at the Commander's Palace with 25¢ Cosmo martinis! Synchronized serving (all the entrees and desserts were sat down on the table in front of each person at the same time), a tour of the kitchens and wine cellars, as well as outstanding food were all order of the day.

Luckily, we had the afternoon free to walk off our meals and more decadent (and delicious) desserts. Some of us moseyed up to the bookstore on the corner while others went back to explore the city via the trolley.

Collection of Memories Memory Sketch Watercolor and Ink Click to Enlarge

If you ever find yourself in NOLA, pause and look, I mean really look around you. Look up, look down, look at the ground, look at the balconies, just look. There is something to see EVERYWHERE you look! The fire hydrant in the image above most have had 500 strings of beads on it. I'm not sure how many times I passed it before I actually saw it!

The other ephemera on the page is from places I wanted to remember and memories I wanted to collect. There was several cigar shops and bars in NOLA that I don't remember from last year. Whereas cigars are not my thing, I do think they have very cool wrappers on some of the cigars.

The green book shop piece is actually a bookmark that I've folded down to fit on the page and attached with a clear tape hinge. That way I can read the info without it sticking outside of the book. The sticker at the bottom right came off from a great cup of coffee.

Simple items, but each evokes a strong memory of where I was, what I was doing and who I was with—pretty cool for just a little piece of paper!
From the Cemetery Page:
Cemetery founded in 1833 by the city of Lafayette. City was later incorporated by New Orleans.
Many early immigrants buried here, especially German.
Many died from the Yellow Fever Epidemic.
Cemetery is non-segregated and non-denomenatinal.
Unlimited internment.
Many society tombs - firemen, orphanages, etc.
Crypts built of many different materials, sometimes painted the same color as [the] family home.
"Property" returns to the city after 150(?) years of inactivity
Crypts could hold two coffins—one on top, one on the bottom.
Mourning time - customary was one year and one day.
(And this final is a note to myself) Look into "4 Gentlemen Crypts" secret society