Need to have a day at home today so here is what I got up to with my sketchbook!

Visions of Suburbia….Colorbond Roof extensions and solar panels. Unlike the extension I posted the other day, this one retains the scale of the existing californian bungalow. We are the only ones (from our battleaxe block) who really see the new shining roof.

A few people have wanted to see me do a colour chart of the different coloured teas I have been drinking in the last 2 weeks… I thought I would sketch the cups as well. I am so OVER drawing tea cups as a result of doing this today!
BTW these are my ‘everyday’ cups

An afternoon reading in the garden…. here is the accompanying sketch. Hills Hoist and Lap and Cap (another Australian suburbian legend!)

Josu from Spain (Basque Country to be exact) recently got a pilot parallel pen and did some amazing things with it. I resisted the urge for a week or so… but after seeing this sketch I weakened. It is a calligraphy pen and delightfully unpredictable (at the moment till I get the hang of it)

Here is the first test that I did with my new pilot parallel pen. BTW, I discovered that if you scan your sketchbook so that the movement of the light is perpendicular to the gutter of your book, there are no nasty shadows. (this is my Stillman and Birn sketchbook) HOWEVER it means for me scanning each page separately and joining in photoshop…so I would bother except for important scans. Also I seem to get better scans if I scan to tiff format and then save as jpg to upload.