Arizona sketches

I took a road trip to my old stomping grounds in Arizona to visit my Mom for mother’s day.  Saturday, we spent the afternoon down at Tempe Town Lake, enjoying the sunshine (translate=getting sunburn), throwing ketchup packets at pigeons (they were trying to steal my fries!), and just relaxing.

I recently lost my beloved fountain pen  (waaaah!), so I had to find a replacement for her.  I bought a new one at Aaron brothers, but ended up with a much broader nib that I like. But I thought I’d try and see if I can make it work. I did a sketch of the Mill Ave bridge that crossed over Tempe Lake. The results were…interesting. Not in love with it, but it is a different look than my normal sketches. Also, the ink is NOT waterproof, so that means no watercolors over it.

On the way home to California, since I was by myself, and in no major rush to get home, I stopped at a rest area about 50 miles from the border to do some more sketching. It was reeeally windy, and I must have looked pretty funny perched on the top of a fence post, with my sketchbook and watercolors in my lap.  I wouldn’t have been surprised to have been blown off the post, it was so gusty. But I manged to get a quick painting of the Kola mountain range before climbing down.

There were so many times on the drive home, that I wished I could pull over on the side of the highway, and sit and paint for a while.  But alas…the little voice of common sense in my head (that unsurprisingly sounds a lot like my mother) told me it would not be a good idea. So instead I tried to capture some really good mental images to store for later paintings.