GoLytely

10/19/16 brush pen, colored pencils

GoLytely.

If you know what it is, then you’ll sympathize. Of course, the “prep” is the worst part, and mine happened to fall yesterday during the final Presidential debate. Knowing I would have to spend much of the evening there, I decided to set up camp with my laptop in one of our bathrooms so that I could sketch the candidates.

I also sketched the second debate last week. Unfortunately, we were eating dinner while viewing that one, and it killed my appetite. My GoLytely experience was more satisfying.

10/9/16 brush pen, colored pencil

Sketching the Hand that Sketches

2/20/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn
Gamma sketchbook

I’ve occasionally seen sketches that people have made of the hand they are supposedly drawing with, and I’ve always wondered how they did it. Was it nothing more than reversing the image digitally? Did they take a photo and draw from that? Or did they actually find a way to do it from life (with a mirror?)?

Last year for Greg’s Valentine card, I needed to sketch both hands, so first I sketched my right hand (that’s the one I don’t draw with), and then I tried sketching its mirror image right next to it. This task was much harder than I’d imagined, but it was as close to sketching both hands from life that I could think of.

2/20/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn
Gamma sketchbook

For my 1,000th blog post, I decided I wanted to sketch my left hand, but I didn’t want to repeat the mirror image attempt again. I couldn’t think of another practical way to do it from life, and I also didn’t want to simply reverse the drawing digitally – at least not as the final sketch. So here’s what I did:

First I made a rough drawing of my right hand. This, too, was harder than I’d thought, as the “model” didn’t look natural; it doesn’t usually hold a pen, so it felt and looked awkward. I kept having to look at the pen in my actually drawing left hand to see what it looked like, then switch it back to look at it in the right hand. (I also discovered how asymmetrical my two hands are!) When the rough drawing was finished, I reversed it digitally, printed it out, and then drew it again from the rough drawing.

Drawing from a reversed copy of a drawing isn’t drawing from life, but it worked. Next time I need a sketch of my left hand, I’ll try to think of a different way to do it. Why? Who knows! I suppose stuff like this is what keeps me blogging for one-thousand-plus posts!

P. S. The Sailor fude pen in my hand isn’t nearly as long as I made it look in the sketch! I guess I was working so hard to keep my hand in proportion that I forgot all about the pen.

3/7/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

P.S., part 2: Practicing sketching my hand, which I did a lot of a few years ago, does come in handy, as it did just this morning at the Burke Museum. A volunteer was using a small drill to remove rock from a dinosaur bone. Of course, it’s always different when the hand keeps moving, but the practice still helps.

Blog Post No. 1,000

2/20/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

On March 18 last year and the year before, I commemorated my blogging anniversary with a few (OK, more than a few) retrospective words about what blogging has meant to me. This year I’m going to skip March 18 and instead make my pithy comments today, because Blogger informs me that this is my 1,000^th blog post!

On this milestone, I decided to look through my all-time Blogger stats, which confirmed my general hunch that my most popular blog posts (as measured by number of pageviews) are the product reviews. These are the top 10 posts of the blog’s three years:

1. The Sketch Bag: An Update

2. Epic Pen Searchand Discovery, Part 1: MikeD’s Pen

3. Product Reviews: Pentel Color Brush Pen and Kuretake Brush Writer

4. Product Review: Super 5 Fountain Pen and Ink

5. Portable Sketch Kit, Part 1: Size Matters

6. Sketchbook-Inspired Digression, Part 1: My DIY Planner

7. Product Review: Rhodia Rhodiarama Pocket Notebook

8. Product Reviews: Tombow, Akashiya Sai and Akashiya Thin Line Brush Pens

9. Travel Sketchbook Issue – Resolved!

10. The Ongoing Evolution of a Mint Tin Watercolor Kit

Not surprisingly, the “page” with the most pageviews is Current Favorite Art Materials.

When I started Fueled by Clouds and Coffee, my intention was to use the blog, first and foremost, as documentation of my own creative process and growth as a sketcher. I knew even before I began the blog that experimenting with various art materials was a significant part of my process, so writing product reviews was a natural outcome. I didn’t know whether the product talk would be of interest to others, but I had a feeling it might, because whenever I’m interested in learning about a certain product, I tend to seek out other bloggers’ reviews. I’m happy to see that my blog stats confirm that interest. (If sharing my sketches as part of my creative-growth documentation is the self-interest part of my blog, then I’ll consider my product reviews as the public service part.)

In addition to the retrospective view of my own progress (which is sometimes happily evident and other times disappointingly slow), documentation includes recording all the places I’ve sketched. As an urban sketcher, I delight in looking back through my blog to see the places I’ve captured as well as recall my thoughts and impressions of the day.

I keep hearing rumors that blogging is dead. With the explosion of social media, blogs have apparently become passé. It’s a one-directional medium, trend watchers say, with an interface that doesn’t facilitate meaningful dialog and discussion. (You mean the way Facebook does?) Many bloggers have moved to Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, saying that feedback and dialog are more current and immediate.

While I do post sketches on social media, and I do appreciate the feedback I receive there, blogging still meets my need for documentation in a way that social media never will. And that makes me appreciate you, my readers, even more, for sticking with me on this journey made on an apparently passé medium. Thank you!

(See the next post to find out how my left hand served as both the model and the sketcher!)

Six More Weeks

2/2/15 Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, Stillman & Birn
Gamma sketchbook

The Washington Post reports that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, so you know what that means. (Sketched from a Washington Post photo.)

Technical note: Lately I’ve been making a lot of pen-and-ink sketches from photos of animals on last year’s calendar. (I haven’t posted many yet, but you’ll see more as I review pens as part of my Epic Search and Discovery series.) I was going to sketch Phil that way, but as I looked at his fur, I remembered how much I enjoyed sketching fur with colored pencils last October at the Olympic National Park, so I got out my Caran d’Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils instead. A mix of black and brown pencils imparted a soft, furry look, and then I used a waterbrush to bring out some shading.

Baby Elephant

1/3/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black and Diamine Grey inks, Caran d'Ache
Museum water-soluble colored pencil, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

No, I’m not urban sketching in Africa (I wish!). Last year’s calendar was filled with beautiful images of baby wild animals. I was about to toss it into the recycle bin, but then I realized that many of the images would make good sketching exercises. I’m not a fan of sketching from photos, but during the worst months of winter, it will have to do.

Taking My Stegosaur for a Walk

10/18/14 Sailor Jentle Doyou ink, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma

I’m enrolled in Sketchbook Skool this term.

As an urban sketcher, I think of every sketch I make as a story. Not necessarily a newsworthy one – I rarely sketch anything that would qualify as sketch reportage. The way I look at, a “story” can be as simple as a few coloring maples lighting up the parking lot of a grocery store where I shop; trees butchered to make way for power lines; the neighborhood store where I still rent videos. In other words, the “story” might be nothing more than something that caught my attention at a certain time and place.

The descriptions of the first two semesters of Sketchbook Skool didn’t interest me much, but the third one – “Storytelling” – felt like it would be right up my alley. Although I’ve enjoyed most of the video presentations of the first two instructors (especially watching Melanie Reim’s demo of the way she wields a conventional fountain pen in a most unconventional way! If I could figure out how to do that, I wouldn’t need my Sailor!), I wasn’t inspired enough to complete the homework assignments (I’m such a bad student!). The third and current instructor, however, is a different matter.

I’ve been a fan of Mattias Adolfsson’s amazingly imaginative drawings for a long time. Drawing from imagination has always felt like something that other people do – people with imaginations more vivid or at least more illustratable than mine. Imaginative storytelling is not even something I necessarily aspire to – I’m perfectly happy simply trying to sketch what I see in the real world – yet Mattias’ drawings are so strange and wondrous and his explanations so seemingly straightforward that I felt compelled by his invitation to give it a shot.

Bad student that I am, I didn’t exactly follow the first assignment, which was to sketch a childhood memory. Instead, I latched onto something else he said in a lesson: Take any real-life experience and use that memory to start the sketch.

I didn’t have to go too far back in my memory to dig up a real-life experience – just to last Tuesday, when I sketched a stegosaur skeleton at the Burke. With that skeletal structure still fresh in my mind, I sketched some flesh onto it, and voilà – a fantasy childhood memory. It was much easier than I had expected – and, more important, it was fun! I’ll probably never be another Mattias, but it feels good to give myself a whack upside the brain once in a while.

Supermoon and Reflex Sketch

7/12/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa and Diamine Grey inks, Stillman & Birn Gamma

During my busy weekend attending Shari Blaukopf’s workshop, I did a couple of sketches just to relax without the pressure of trying to apply concepts I was learning.

One was done around 10 p.m. Saturday night as the “supermoon” was rising. (Not exactly an urban sketch – I viewed it from our front deck, but it was too dark to sketch out there, so I went into the house and sketched it from memory.)

7/13/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Canson XL
140 lb. paper

The second was late yesterday afternoon after I finished my last workshop exercise. I sat back (well, as much as one can “sit back” on a three-legged camp stool!), took a couple of deep breaths and then sketched Ashley and Peggy finishing up their sketches before the final critique. I think this is the type of sketch that Liz Steel would call a “reflex sketch”: something that can be done without hurting my brain too much and that feels relaxing even when it’s challenging. 

Crow

6/8/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Greg noticed the pair of crows perched on our lilac tree yesterday while he was working in the yard. Perhaps they have a nest nearby, although if they do, it’s probably in one of the much taller trees in neighboring yards. This pair seemed unconcerned about his proximity and were generally lackadaisical.

One of the pair spent much of this morning resting on our neighbor’s trellis. As ubiquitous as crows are, I haven’t had many opportunities to sketch them, so when I saw that this one wasn’t going anywhere, I stepped outside quietly with my sketchbook. I’m wondering if it is sick or injured, as its feathers lack the sheen of other crows, and it seems lethargic. During the 20 minutes that I stood there, it nodded off several times like an old man watching TV in a recliner. At the same time, it remained alert, snapping to attention and turning its head when the dog that lives behind us came out and again when the other crow sounded an alarm. Even after I had filled three pages with small studies, it remained on the trellis.

Photo by Greg Mullin

One More

4/1/13 watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

The flowering cherry trees didn’t get their reputation for being fleeting for nothing. Less than a week after they first started blossoming, they are now at their peak, and today’s stiff breeze was already prompting snowfalls of petals.

 

On my walk around Green Lake this morning, I spotted an enormous cherry bursting with puffy blossoms, and I knew it might be my last opportunity this year. This afternoon I took my large sketchbook and my trail stool down to the edge of the walking path.

 

With my typical 8 ½ by 5 ½ inch sketchbook, I prefer to sketch standing up with my paint box clipped onto the book’s cover, but with an 11 by 8 ½ inch sketchbook, I can’t do that. Clearly not one of the en plein air painters who occasionally set up their easels on shore, I attracted more attention than I usually do when I sketch. It was probably the awkward stance: Hunched over my tiny stool, holding the book on my lap, leaning over constantly to dip into my paints on the ground. Everyone who stopped by commented on the tree’s beauty and how its blossoms seemed to appear overnight.

 

In another few days, they’ll be gone just as quickly: transient as life.

Hanami on the Quad

3/30/13 Zig markers, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Greg wanted to try out his new camera, and we knew the blossoming cherry trees wouldn’t be around long, so we went over to the Quad on the University of Washington campus. Since it was Saturday, we expected it to be quiet, but it turned out to be an informal cherry blossom viewing event. (In Japan, they even have a term for it – hanami.) Hundreds of people were simply standing around in the Quad, looking up at the huge cherry trees, soaking up sunshine and temperatures in the mid-60s. The trees there are unusually white instead of the pale pink I see elsewhere.

 

3/30/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor

While he snapped away at the blossoms and crowds, I wandered over to Denny Hall, built in 1894. The entire building was too much for me, but I thought I’d attempt its bell tower and one of its conical turrets. Wearing flip-flops in March, sketching in the sunshine – I can’t think of too many things I’d rather be doing on a Saturday afternoon (or anytime).

Upper Queen Anne

3/29/13 Platinum Carbon and Sepia inks, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Just out of school and on my own for the first time, I lived in a tiny studio apartment in upper Queen Anne, so I have nostalgically fond memories of that neighborhood. Queen Anne Hill symbolized freedom, independence and many meals of rice and beans and ramen so that I could afford to pay the rent. My entertainment in those days was anything that was free, so I took a lot of walks on quiet, tree-lined residential streets.

 

One of my favorite walks was along Eighth Avenue West where a long row of globe lamps tops a wall on one side of the street for several blocks. About a year ago I was driving around the area looking for something to sketch, so I stopped at nearby Betty Bowen Viewpoint (also known as Marshall Park). I looked at the curving wall and those romantic globe lamps, not knowing how or where to start to get that intimidating perspective right, and I lost my courage. I got back in my car and decided to leave it for another day.

 

That day was apparently today. A clear blue sky and temperatures in the 60s while driving a convertible tend to give me more optimism than skills, but I cruised over to that beloved spot and sketched.

I Brake for Cherry Blossoms

3/27/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Uniball opaque white marker, Stillman & Birn

When Greg and I traveled to Japan in 2007, it was late-March, and the whole country was on high cherry blossom alert. Similar to leaf peepers on the East Coast who track the color of maples as it moves southward, the Japanese media were reporting early sightings of the pale pink sakura blossoms beginning on the southern end of the islands and moving northward. We had to leave before the peak, but we still enjoyed many flowering cherries in Kyoto.

 

Although I’m generally observant of seasonal changes, I have to say that I’ve become more sensitive to tiny hints of spring since I became a sketcher. It’s been a long, wet winter as usual, and last Friday’s freakish snowstorm was a rude turn. Maybe that’s why it was such a shocking delight to find that so many cherry trees at Green Lake had suddenly blossomed this week. When I spotted this one (only a couple blocks north of the bare trees I sketched a week ago), I was so eager to sketch it that I slammed on the brakes rather abruptly and probably parked a little closer to a stop sign than was legal.

 

For the Japanese, the brief appearance of cherry blossoms each spring symbolizes the fleeting bittersweetness of life. I’m not quite that poetic or philosophical, but maybe for me, cherry blossoms symbolize the fleeting bittersweetness of outdoor sketching weather.

The Early Bird Catches Barcelona

3/25/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Fully tanked with coffee and my finger twitching on the mouse button, I impatiently waited for my laptop clock to read 6:00 a.m. PDT, when registration for the Fourth International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona would open worldwide. I knew that at previous symposia, registration filled within hours of opening, and hundreds of disappointed sketchers weren’t able to nab the 150 available seats, so I was ready.

 

After an initial “browser cookie issue” nearly caused panic at the virtual door, I shoved my way in. A few mouse clicks later, I was one of 150 happy symposium registrants who made it in – I’m going to Barcelona! I even got all my first-choice workshops! (Sure enough, about two hours later, the symposium was full.)

 

3/25/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

As if that weren’t enough to make my day, the sun came out, and this time it wasn’t preceded by snow flurries. With afternoon temperatures in the 60s, it actually felt like spring! With so many things to celebrate, MiataGrrl took the top down and headed for the zoo.

 

I wasn’t the only one eager to get out in the sunshine. The African Savannah was crowded with zebras, water fowl and two giraffes grazing at a large tree. Wanting to stay in the sun, I almost bypassed the Komodo dragon, but the big guy is hard to resist – he hardly moves. In fact, it had been nearly a year since I last sketched him, so he was worth a quick pen sketch. He was in particularly fine form today, drooling profusely, which caused no end of delight among the kids watching him.

 

3/25/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Zig markers

Taking a break outside the Rain Forest Food Pavilion, I sketched a family and yet another Chinese windmill palm tree – my third in two months. My last sketch at the zoo was of a man who was happy to catch a few Z’s while waiting for his grandkids to find him.

 

3/25/13 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink

 

Today my sister would have turned 67 years old if she had survived the heart failure that took her life a few weeks after her 65^th birthday. All day, I thought of her and everything I’m grateful for, every day, with every sketch I make. I don’t take any of them for granted.

Emerald City Trapeze Arts



3/24/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

My heart was racing and my palms were sweating so much that I could hardly hold a pen. Safety net and harnesses notwithstanding, it was a thrill to see the students of Emerald City Trapeze Arts practicing their moves on the flying trapeze. Maybe some of them will perform under the big top someday, and it was fun to think I might have seen their first flights today.

 

As for my own aspirations, I had hoped that my life drawing sessions at Gage would have been somewhat helpful, but. . . not so much. I was happy to get a few gestural sketches from the balcony, where the students seemed to fly right past my face.

 

Many thanks to Gail and Jane for organizing a unique Seattle Urban Sketchers sketching opportunity!

3/24/13 Platinum Carbon ink

3/24/13 Zig brush markers

An Urban Palette

Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers

I love markers.

Who can resist the eye candy and creative potential of a huge palette of colors, like that of Pitt Artist Pens (48 colors), Tombow Dual-Brush Pens (96) or Copic markers (a whopping 214!)? (Actually, I have no problem resisting Copic markers, for a couple of reasons.) It’s like being a kid with a brand new box of Crayola crayons (64 was the biggest box in my day, but now it’s up to 133), but better, because markers don’t break or melt.

12/16/12 Platinum Carbon ink, Zigs, S & B Gamma

Unlike paints, markers are harder to blend, so I end up wanting more colors than I can realistically carry in my bag, which I’m always trying to lighten.  So as difficult as it is, I do try to resist collecting the entire available set of any marker I’m in love with, including the Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker (60 colors), my current favorite.

2/26/13 Zigs, S & B Gamma

My bag now contains a careful selection of Zigs, which I think of as an urban palette that will take care of grass, trees, cars, buildings and people. The colors are (shown left to right in photo): Geranium Red, Bright Yellow, Yellow, Olive Green, Deep Green, Blue Gray, Gray, Mid-Gray, Oatmeal, Light Gray. (Ten markers – not bad for a girl who usually picks out purple, pink and lime green first from any retail marker display!)

12/28/12 Eclipse ink, Zigs, Pitt Artist Pen, Hand Book

I get a decent range of values from the shades of gray (the pickup truck and the interior value study are examples), which I consider essential, especially when paired with fountain pen inks. The Light Gray alone, which seems too light to be useful, is surprisingly versatile for shading and ghosting in background objects (the musicians and mom and kid scene). Oatmeal gives me a warmer shading color with brown inks, and Blue Gray pairs well with blue-black inks.

11/30/12 Black Velvet ink, Zig, S & B Epsilon

The five optional colors are mostly for convenience: Sometimes I don’t want to get out my watercolors just to put two small spots of red and amber on a car’s tail lights or to indicate a tuft of grass or a few flowers. I’ll probably pare these down over time and replace them with more essential tools.

Edited 4/26/14: See the results of a longevity test I did on these markers and some philosophical comments about lightfastness and sketching.

Metasketching Weather

It’s the first day of spring, and it’s coming in like a lion. Here’s what it looks like on weather.com    à

 

Despite the blue sky I see, it feels like our windows could implode, and the clouds look like time-lapse photography.

 

I decided it was a good day to stay in and do some metasketching – sketching sketching materials with sketching materials. Traditional still lifes don’t excite me much, although I see the value in learning from them, and I’ve done a few. But sketching the art materials I love and use every day means more to me than the random fruits and flowers that appear in my house.

 

3/20/13 Copic Multiliner SP pen, watercolors, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Ironically, it’s technically not possible to sketch sketching materials with the actual sketching materials being sketched. I’m trying not to think about that too much, or I’ll have a woo-woo moment, not unlike standing in the restroom of a fancy hotel or restaurant where mirrors face more mirrors, and you can see your reflection reflected infinitely.

 

This is what happens to my brain when snow is threatened on the first day of spring.

 

(Shown left to right are a Lamy Safari fountain pen, a Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker, my mint tin watercolor box, a Kuretake waterbrush and a Lamy Nexx fountain pen.)

Calvary Christian Assembly



3/15/13 Platinum Sepia, watercolor, Hand Book journal

They say three’s a charm.

 

I’m not sure this sketch is exactly charmed, but I’ve said before that I can be stubborn even as I’m intimidated, so I decided to tackle the Calvary Christian Assembly yet a third time (at right).

 

It helps that it was a balmy 55 degrees today, so I could get out of the car and view it from a different angle. The first time I tried sketching the tower was last November on a cold day (below left), and no matter where I parked, the cross looked like a straight line, and the tower was overpowered by a tall fir tree. The second time, from a better parking spot, I could at least see the cross (below right), but let’s just say I was having a bad sketching day. I gave up quickly.

 

Note that today's sketch includes all three of my current and previous sketching nemeses: architecture, cars and trees.

 

Can I go home now?

11/10/12 Omas Sepia, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma

2/19/13 Platinum Carbon ink, S&B Gamma

Pioneer Square, International District and the Wrong Station



3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn

Our sketching destination this morning was King Street Station, which has been undergoing renovation for years, but we didn’t know that the main station interior we were hoping to sketch was recently closed (and should be spectacular when it reopens). Disappointed but not daunted, Kate, Lynne, Peggy, Nilda and I set out to explore other sketching possibilities in Pioneer Square and the International District. 

 

3/8/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn

An atrium at 401 Second Avenue South between two brick buildings proved to be an interesting perspective challenge. After lunch, the group split up, and Nilda and I stopped at a small courtyard at Fifth and Weller, where I sketched a ring-billed gull bathing in a water feature.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

We ended up at Union Station. No longer an operating train station, it’s now a beautiful, wide open plaza with a scattering of chairs and tables and not much else. This is where we should have been sketching this morning! Of course, it proved an insurmountable architectural challenge for me, so I focused on one of the many ornate details.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

 

My favorite sketch of the day was of a man playing a Chinese stringed instrument at the International District/Chinatown Station. After I finished the sketch, I asked him what the instrument is called, and he said something that sounded like “chi-na” (but I doubt that was correct). After asking him to repeat it, I still couldn’t catch what he was saying, so I handed him my sketchbook and asked him to write the name of it on the page. He seemed delighted with the sketch.

Alki Avenue Southwest

3/5/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

I was meeting a friend for lunch at Cactus on Alki Avenue Southwest in West Seattle, so I arrived a little early to sketch more bare trees.

 

Unlike cars, my previous sketching nemesis, trees and their intricate network of branches fascinate me, so my current self-inflicted sketching exercise doesn’t feel quite as onerous. In fact, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this challenge, as difficult as it is.

 

Unfortunately, my arboreal knowledge is even narrower than my automotive knowledge, so I can’t tell you what kind of trees these are. But if you look at yesterday’s sketch at Green Lake, you’ll have a sense of déjà vu.

(Nearly) Bare Nekkid Maples

3/4/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Sunshine!

 

The temperature was only 49, but rain is predicted again for tomorrow, so I took the top down and headed for Green Lake.

 

This stand of maples is one of my favorites there – bright green in summer, a blaze of orange and red in the autumn. I sketched them twice last year – once in October and then again in November – because they seemed to be dressed in their fall finery long past their usual deadline. The tallest tree in the center of this sketch was in denial even longer than I was; it held onto red leaves at its very top all the way into December. Today I was surprised to see that that same tree and a couple of others still had a few brown leaves. I like their attitude – going into winter kickin’ and screamin’. My hunch is that they’ll be the first to get their green on come spring.

As for me – I was chilled to the bone by the time I finished this sketch. It ain’t here yet.