Alligator Pear

I've learned more things about avocados! They have the very appropriate name of Alligator Pair. They are not a vegetable but a fruit, or if you want to be more specific, a single-seed berry. And they are very much cultivated by humans - the researchers state that people of Central America started tending avocados more than 11 000 years ago.

Stanford Cactus Garden and Eucalyptus Tree

Somehow I managed to live near Stanford University for many years now, but never got to visit the Cactus Garden there. It is also called an Arizona Garden and is quite old. There were many things to draw, but the time was limited, so I think I would call this a reconnaissance sketching - I will be back to draw an old Joshua Tree and all the textures of many interesting succulents! I quickly put this sketch together from a shade of a tree where I could observe a plant being simultaneously eaten by a hummingbird and a squirrel.  

And of course, an eucalyptus tree is always a reason to stop by and sketch!

A Week of Lilacs and How to Keep them Alive

The fragrance of lilacs is one of the threads that outlined seasons in my childhood. I enjoy finding these beautiful blooming bushes every year to catch that "smell of May," and I try to paint them every year. 

They are probably one of the most exciting and maddening color challenges for me to paint! Lilac season in California is actually in March and not in May like in Ukraine, and this year I visited a few bushes that I knew and found a couple of new ones in my neighborhood too (which is always exciting). But I did not get a chance to do a proper outing to paint them. So when I saw this beautiful bouquet in a local Trader Joe's, the decision to spend a week with these flowers on my table was simple! Hot weather made it a bit of a struggle to keep them alive, but frequent trimming, accompanied by a change of water and cold water mist, helped. These sketches are chronological - so the last one - quite droopy was the one before goodbye. 

Lemons, Avocados and Thinking

I've been thinking about different kinds of backgrounds. Backgrounds as something that we grow from. Backgrounds as something that seems irrelevant but is actually part of the picture. Backgrounds as additional information, like writing next to a sketch. 

I thought about widely advertised software that allows you to erase other people or objects from your photos. I thought about how there is a lot of pressure from spell-checking and ai-based text support that suggests words for you and influences your tone in writing. I've been thinking about how different people use streaming services in different ways (both music and video). And I thought about plants and disobedience. 

Ended up selecting these lemons and avocados as an illustration for all that thinking. 

Sketchbook #160

I just started a new sketchbook - number 160! I decided not to make it a GRAND one (like number 150) and went for a trusted brand which I know will support many things I want to do (it is an 8"x10" softcover Alpha Series from Stillman & Birn). But I wanted to celebrate somehow. So instead of listing all my current tools on the very first page, I listed my intentions. 

So this image will tell you (and me) what I was planning for this volume of the illustrated journal of my life and experiments in early May of 2025. 

We all will see how that goes :)

Here is a link to some "new sketchbook" posts form before - stretching quite a few years:
https://blog.apple-pine.com/search/label/new%20sketchbook

African Violets - a series of 15 sketches

One of the questions I get quite often is why I draw the same thing over and over. Among several long versions of the answer (depending on who is asking), I have one very short one: It is never the same.

I just finished a sketchbook and collected here fifteen portraits of my African Violets. They are resting right now after repotting and I hope to see new buds soon - but I am always happy to draw them - flowers or not: furry leaves with different colors on two sides, interesting patterns of veins, the complexity of the shape they make as they grow, stems that are as prominent as leaves - and that is all before the flowers! 

 I've had these violets for some time now - here is a link to a whole collection of drawings of them I did over the years: 
https://blog.apple-pine.com/search/label/african%20violet

A Trip to an Iris Garden - with friends!

This year I went to sketch at Nola's Iris Garden with a plan to paint irises. I brought with me a backpack full of materials that I put together thinking about my list experiments (and not about irises), and I was joined by two friends who created some amazing art - here are two posts by Suhita Shirodkar: gouache and watercolor and watercolor and ink (and pencil? :). And here is a link to a pastel piece by Jennifer Gaskin. 

Apart from an amazing range of irises I had a great time looking at inquisitive cows, watching a hummingbird take a bath, and following all sorts of mad killdeer activities (I think there was a nest near the place where we were painting - hence we witnessed a whole array of professional attempts at discouraging us from being there. The poor distressed bird was running around us, calling in different tones, pretending that it had an injured wing, running away, flying erratically etc.). 

I got a couple of first sketches out and then went to my list of experiments and tried about 1/2 of them. My idea was to to use different materials to find an illusive textured line feeling that I am after as well as a combination of background and foreground textures and opaque/transparent feeling. But it all meant that I spread my attention over too many things and was able to finish only one sketch (and a half)  - the rest came home to be added to a pile "try and make something out of it" :) 

My Secret to Using Dip Pen On Location

No matter how many fountain pens I have or try, eventually, I go back to a dip pen - at least for some time. But traveling with a dip pen and using it on location is quite tricky - mostly because of potential ink spills. Over the years I tried several different techniques and this one seems to be my personal top runner:

I use an empty eye drops container, wash it, and fill it with ink. Then I apply ink (a drop or two) directly on the nib of my dip pen - and draw. If there is extra ink on my pen - a touch of the tip of the nib to the hole gets extra ink back into the bottle. With this setup I can draw pretty quickly (even while standing): I hold my tiny bottle in the same hand as my sketchbook and squeeze ink one drop at a time. In some cases, I've drawn with the tip of the bottle itself - or used found objects to use as a pen - all because the ink was available in this convenient way. 

This week I realized that one of my ink bottles stopped working properly as plastic aged and got too rigid - so I no longer could get one or two drops - it is "nothing or gushing" - so I got a new (quite soft) bottle and moved ink into it - here are some photos of the process - click on the image to see it larger.

On My Table: Beginning of May 2025.

May is here, and with it, we arrived at the season for painting bearded irises! I just finished my Sketchbook #159 with a trip to an Iris Garden and am hoping to add some irises to a new Sketchbook #160 too - it will be Stillman &Burn Alpha 8"x10" in soft cover. I will make a video about the completed sketchbook soon. 

I am enjoying lots of experiments right now and will write about some of them if they get to something interesting. At the turn of this month, my limited pencil palette included 5 pencils and a waterbrush filled with blue-gray ink. Pencils are:

1. Prismacolor Dark Purple (931)

2. Caran D Ache Luminance Payenes Gray 30% (504)

3. Prismacolor Rosy Beige (1019)

4. Caran D Ache Supracolor II Soft Brownish Orange (3888)

5. Holbein Jaune Brilliant (122)

The ink mixture was created by washing two bottles of ink that I emptied when refilling my pens so there is no recipe :) But it means that I will be getting some new ink soon!