Two Kittens and A Naked Tree Watercolor and Ink Stillman and Birn Bound Beta Journal 5.5 x 8.5 inches

Most of you who read the blog now know that Chris and I have been acquired by two kittens and it has had a definite impact on our lives.

One of things we wondered about was how the kittens and a Christmas tree would get along together.

This past Sunday, we put the tree up, sans ornaments, for a trial run.

As we pulled the various parts out of the box, the kittens came to investigate. Before long Moby was running around jumping in and out of the boxes, attacking anything that moved, nibbling on "branches" and in general, getting under foot and in the way.

Willis was a little more reserved and sat back to observe before deciding it was okay to launch herself into the boxes and give everything the "sniff test of approval."

But Willis couldn't outdone by that young upstart (Moby) and quickly decided she needed to be in the thick of things as well.

This, of course, lead to much chasing and smacking and attacking—in short, they had a blast.

And in case you're wondering about Joey, he was all the way on the other side of the room, tucked up safe and sound in his bed away from the bedlam.

The tree stood unmolested for just over 24 hours before we watched Willis climb up into the tree.

Sigh.

Willis in the tree

We had hoped. (Yes, we were in denial.)

This left a frustrated Moby on the ground going into attack mode. She'd swipe at any part of Willis she could reach and it became quite the game of seek and attack.

With Moby on the attack, Willis climbed higher to get out of her reach. So far, she's reach the middle of the tree, about three feet from the ground.

And that really frustrated Moby!

What's a kitten to do but figure out how to get her furry behind up in the tree?

Moby hanging out in the tree

And so she did.

More sighing.

Before the night was over, I watched Moby run around the end of the love seat and straight at the tree (another six or seven feet) before she launched into the bottom of the tree without ever breaking stride or slowing down. Just like there was nothing to it…

Shutter.

In a little over 48 hours of the tree going up, we went to two kittens in a tree!

Updated Page and Tree

Raw Ideas Scribbled in my Junk Journal

I like to change out the blog header during the holidays and this year is no different. For whatever reason, I seem to have snowmen on the brain and that's where I started looking for ideas for this year's header.

I grabbed my junk journal* with black pen** and started sketching lots of faces, hats and scarves in an attempt to capture what I could see in my head. This last page shows where I switched to pencil as I felt I was getting close to what I wanted.
*A Junk Journal in a journal of inexpensive paper that doesn't hold up to washes or even heavy marker work. The reason for this is so that I can play in complete safety and explore ideas without worrying that I'm going to "ruin" good paper.

**I use pen so that I can just put ideas down and not get caught up in refining the sketch too early. This is a brainstorming session. The refining will come later.
As I looked at the long scarf, I realized it wasn't a long hat I was looking for but a scarf!

Refined Sketch, Junk Journal

You can't tell from looking at the sketch, but there was lots of erasing and redrawing until I came up with what I was looking for.

Rather than work out my color scheme in the junk journal, I scanned the page and worked it out on a page I printed off. This allows me more flexibility if I ever decide to use this particular sketch again.

I then redrew the sketch on a piece of watercolor paper and got busy with my brush…and totally forgot to take photos! Oops!

Lefty the Snowman

I had a near disaster at the very beginning of the painting process: I used a salt that did not absorb the color I used in the background! I've never had this to happen in all the years I've used salt. Instead of robbing color, the pigment settled in around the granules creating dark spots.

Righty the Snowman

Since I really didn't want to start over, I decided to add snow with acrylic paint at the very end of the process. All of the "snow" collecting on the hats and floating around is from a white acrylic Sharpie® Poster Paint marker. Sadly, I don't believe this marker is made any longer.
The heart represents the love we're all entwined in and the tangles we often experience during the holidays (well, really it's all year long, but it seems to amplify during the holidays).

Since I came up with a number of ideas on the other brainstorming pages in my junk journal, I'm hoping to create more than one header this year. We'll see if I can scrape together the time!
I strongly encourage folks in the ImaginaryTrip.com classes to get a junk journal because they're awesome for playing, exploring new ideas and on occasion, failing without having it show up in a regular journal. When we have no fear of failing, we are far more likely to play.

Using a pen keeps us from getting mired down in the need to "make it perfect" when we're exploring ideas.
With the new header up, I can now say my holidays have officially started!

How about you? What starts your holidays?

Pieces of Autumn Watercolor in Handmade Journal 7 x 7 inches

Pausing just a few minutes as we get ready for Thanksgiving (here in America) to post an old sketchbook page that shows some of my very favorite "pieces of Autumn."

I've been sharing over on Facebook some of the things I am most grateful for and I'm posting just a quick list that is by no means exhaustive but is from the heart:

My sweet husband
The (nearly) 21 years we've been married
Our home
The loving, furry critters that make our house a home
The love that fills our days
Food, heating, cooling and roofs that don't leak
Family close by
Friends, scattered near and far
Cars that run
Gas to make them go
Birdsong
The wind singing in the trees
Colorful leaves
Time to sketch and paint
Work that feeds me on so many, many levels
For all the wonderful artists that have passed through the ImaginaryTrips.com eclasses

And you, dear readers! Thanks for stopping by to see what's up, to share your thoughts, encouragement and inspiration.

Whether you're sitting down to a big meal with family to observe the holiday or just going out your daily round, I wish you happiness, love, and joy!

Moby Cat

I would love to tell you that I haven't lost my mind, but at this point…I'm not so sure.

I would love to tell you that Chris has lost his either, but again, there is evidence to the contrary...

"You work too much! Pay attention to ME!"

The darling creature you see above is Moby Cat, the latest new Ferlita family member. She is a 3-month-old Maine Coon. She's smart, she's intrepid and she is already leading Willis (our other new baby) around.

"I'm soooo tired. That runt is just too much trouble."

Willis follows the kitten around from the time they get up until the time they crash (literally) and pass out. After much hissing and growling, it seems Willis has decided the new interloper is probably here to stay and it's her job to keep an eye on the insolent child. It's an exhausting job as you can see.

Joey, our oldest cat, was unavailable for this photo shoot as he has taken to permanently hiding out under either the bed or the treadmill. Again, much growling can be heard as he and Moby haven't had a chance to interact much yet. Kind of hard to do when you've wedged yourself into a space only a mouse would normally fit in.

"I said YOU are NOT paying ME enough attention! I'm much cuter than this dumb old box!"

Meanwhile, Moby and I are trying to come to amicable terms with regard to computer use. She likes it because it's warm and I have to pay attention to her. She doesn't seem too much into the negotiations. Her attitude is more along the lines of "my way or the highway."

Despite the upheaval, she's love personified. Touch her and she purrs and butts her little head up into your hand. She's gentle…she's been in the house for over a week and she hasn't scratched me yet.

"Wow, you throw away the coolest things, human!"

Moby is also a climber, explorer and adventuress. Above, she's checking out the trash can under my desk in the studio.

Which brings me to my latest thought…isn't Christmas gonna be a blast this year with not one, but TWO tiny terrors!?!

Sigh.

If you're wondering what cataclysmic events transpired that we would have not one, but TWO small (and adorable) creatures joining our lives, I'll tell you that it was simply a conversation with a friend.

Kathy, over at Catching Happiness,  decided it was time for some furry love in her life. She didn't have anyone going with her as she looked for her new companion so I volunteered. My sweet husband decided to go along to "keep me from bringing home any more 'damn' cats!" (Tactical error there, my dear husband!)

Here are the happy humans holding their new charges:

Don't they look happy!?!

 And now, all I can say is, "let the adventures begin!"

Fridge Shopping Stillman & Brin Bound Beta Sketchbook 5.5 x 8.5 inches ink drawing

We need a new fridge.

We've been looking for a while now, but have yet to agree on a model.

On Friday, instead of going to an outdoor antique market, in the rain, we opted to do our shopping indoors.

And we found a fridge!

Finally.

Finally, a model we could both agree on.

It is a Samsung with the freezer on the bottom, but in this model instead of a big drawer in the freezer area, it has lots of small drawers similar to what you get on top.

And the doors are split on the bottom as well.

Yay!!

Wrong.

It's too big.

It's an inch too tall and an inch to deep to go into the space in our kitchen.

Now we have to decide whether to wait to see if Samsung comes out with a smaller model or go with something else.

Dagnabit!

The sketch above was done from memory and then details added from a photo I took with my cell phone. The verbiage was suppose to be much, much different.

Rather than write down the info on products/appliances we're interested in, I just take a photo with my phone for later. The solutions signage was actually in the store and struck me as humorous when I looked at the photo because we were so sure we had found our fridge.

In last week's post, I put up a sketch of a witch in honor of Halloween and invited everyone to submit their interpretation of the art. I had two wonderfully fun submissions!

The first witch I received was from Timaree Cheney from Freebird Drawing! I love the bright happy background and the way she created the Halloween title along the side.

Download the witch file below!

Several years ago I bought a Halloween banner to adorn the outside of my office wall when I was part of the cubicle nation. I felt pretty witchy in those dark days and it suited my mood to a "T!"

I've always admired the work of the art. When I pulled it out of my trick or treat box a few weeks ago and hung it up, I found myself thinking about creating a witch of my own. (Incidentally, mine looks nothing like the original—as usual, I went for the details!)

Sitting down with my Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook, this is what appeared. I googled images of old women and old hands and went to work with a pencil. I used eyes from one woman, a nose from another and the mouth from yet another. I later "inked" it with a Pentel black pigmented ink Color Brush.

Scanning the witch, I decided to offer it to you in two ways…

First, you can download the file for your own personal use. Please, no commercial use and no selling the art. The original is here. Please right click to save image to your desktop.

Second, if you print out the art and add color, collage it into other work or use it in some new way, then scan or photo your artwork and send it to me via the email box in the side bar, you'll be entered into

I will post all images I receive on the blog on Tuesday, November 5th. Please have the art to me no later than midnight EST, Monday, November 4th. I will reveal the giveaway "treat" and the winner* in the post. Please email me the art via the email box on the sidebar.

The original size of the artwork is approximately 5.5 x 8.5 inches.

*Prize will be awarded based on a random draw and not on the artwork. Regardless of number of pieces of art submitted by the artist, the artist's name will only be submitted once for the drawing of a sweet treat.

Willis in the sunshine Stillman and Birn Bound Beta Sketchbook 5.5 x 8.5 Pentel color brush and watercolor

We have a window seat for the cats in the front window of our living room and Willis, our new kitten, likes to climb up there in the late afternoon for a warm, sunny snooze.

Good time for a sketch of her, right?

Only if I'm super quick!

I sketched the line drawing with a Pentel EnerGel pen. This a relatively new pen on the market and is advertised as being unlikely to smear because the ink dries quickly. And it does. The pen tip is an 07 in size and what I like about is that it bleeds giving me lots of fun gray wash effects, but leaves a strong line even after the ink is hit with water.

However, I knew I was going to need a much stronger, larger black pen or paint to capture Willis' likeness quickly. I've been looking for ann opportunity to start sketching with the Pentel Color Brush and this seemed a great time.

I focused on the getting the kitten drawn first because I knew she wasn't going to stay in that position for long. (Animals never stay in the same position for long. They have some kind of radar that lets them know when someone is watching them!)

Before I finished with her entire body, she'd curled up onto her side and gone to sleep. It worked out because I didn't get a chance to get caught up in the details.

I then went back and added the shelf with the fuzzy cover, window details and a few branches from the outside to add a bit of depth to the image.

About the Pentel Color Brush:
The Pentel Color Brush has been around for a while, but I'm just now getting around to mess with it. The ink is not waterproof, giving ample opportunity to create fun washes and effects. It was like a very pigment rich watercolor and played well with the other watercolor I added to the sketch. I put a touch of red to her ears where the sun was lighting up the thinner skin areas.

It was a fun, quick way to get down a sketch of a kitten that is never, ever still.

It was fun to cover a lot of area quickly and created a neat monochromatic effect.

I haven't done any lightfastness tests on either product and so I can't recommend them at this time, but if longevity of your artwork is not of major importance to you in your sketchbooks, I would recommend giving either of these pens a whirl, especially if you like black and white sketching!

As I'm getting ready for an Imaginary Trip To Greece starting next Tuesday, October 15th, I thought I'd share some of the cool, fun facts about this country. In no particular order:

1. Greece is about the size of the state of Alabama with approximately 10 million people living there.
2. Over 16 million people visit the country each year! Tourism is 16% of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
3. The country has more than 2000 islands with 170 populated. Crete is the largest and beyond gorgeous!
4. Greece is the world's third largest producer of olives...can you guess the first and second?
5. When we think of Greece, many of think of the doors, windowsills, and church domes that are painted a beautiful turquoise blue. This paint color is used because of an ancient belief that this shade of blue keeps evil away. The color is called kyanos. “Cyan” and “cyanide” are derived from the word.
6. The legendary home of Zeus and other Olympian gods and goddesses is Greek’s highest elevation, Mount Olympus at 9,750 feet (2,917 meters). The country's lowest elevation is the Mediterranean Sea.
7. The Parthenon (from parthenos or “virgin”) was built almost 2,500 years ago and sits on the Acropolis above the city of Athens. It took 15 years to build. At one time, it featured colorful sculptures and a large gold-and-ivory statue of Athena.