Around my studio

Masked flowers, awaiting their first frosting with paper mache clay.

And here's Little Bear - primed, painted and sealed. 

Brush Pens and Paper

Taking a break from paper mache to play with a little pen and ink.

I feel a bit like I'm channeling Wanda Gág. 

Millions of Cats is one of my very favorite picture books.

That's the Prismacolor Premier Brush Tip Marker and Sakura Pigma Graphic Ink 1 pen, which (when not in use) are stowed happily in the new case I mentioned in my last post.

Hope they inspire you to do some drawing!

New Pens and Travel Case.

There is nothing so supremely satisfying as a new pen.

...Except perhaps an awesome travel case filled with a beautifully organized assortment of them. 

Last week, I treated myself to a variety of inexpensive fountain pens from Jetpens.com. The hardest part was waiting for them to arrive. I'm still breaking them in, but I'll be sure to let you know my favorites once I've had a chance to get a feel for how they perform.

In the mean time, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see a list of some of my favorite tried-and-true travel sketching tools.

But I'm pretty sure my favorite purchase by far is the case itself. I love that there's even a place for my brush pens. Now I'm ready to hit the road with my sketchbooks!

Which is great, considering that next month will be full of travel. I hope to have some fun photos to share!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Some of my favorite sketching and watercolor materials:

- Sakura Koi Water Brush pens

- Pentel Water Brush pens

- Sakura Micron and Graphic pens

- Prismacolor Premier Brush Tip Marker

- Windsor and Newton Cotman Water Colour Compact Set

- Moleskine Watercolor Notebooks

Early Bloom

Experimenting with flowers. Had fun making and painting these. I'm sure there will be more.

I used some discarded pieces of plastic packaging for the bases, and cut out cardboard petals to build up the blossoms.

Covered all surfaces in masking tape.

Smeared with paper mache clay.  Love the texture.

The finished product: Sanded, primed with gesso, and painted with acrylics and gold accent.

They ought to make nice jewelry dishes.

Down the Rabbit Hole

The paper mache odyssey continues

Playing with Paper Mache

 Feeling a bit more three dimensional these days.

Filling my studio with birdies.

I hope to have a flock soon.