Apple-Pine: 2026

Walking Sketches and Thinking about Changing my Pocket Sketching Kit

What unites these random sketches? They are tiny notes from my daily walks. My pocket tools are asking to be changed, so all of these done with something different that I tried for a little while: the first sketch is a fountain pen with a flexible nib - a joy to draw with! (I added color later at home) - I love working with it, but the fact that it might leak in my pocket kept bothering me - so it will probably stay in a more "I am going out to draw" bag.

Second sketch is a gray-body uniball pen, which I carry with me often, and even though it sometimes stops working for me at high altitudes (or after I use it on the plane), it is one of the most reliable tools I know and love. Right there with the ballpoint pens. The watercolor set that I used, though, needs an update - it is lovely because it is tiny, but colors need a refresh.

And the last sketch is another favorite of mine - Pentel Pocket Brush pen with my pocket printmaking tools, and I added color in pencil at home. I loved using this kit! And that cat really had A BOWTIE!

Essential Fall Cleanup Tasks in the Studio

For various reasons, I've been working "from a bag" for most of the summer. After some time, my tools become much more curated (which is a good thing), but they are getting a lot of use and not much care. Now that I am getting into the "fall projects" state of mind, I am on a mission to get my equipment in better order.

1. Over the summer, I got a pencil sharpener, which simplified a situation with "100 dull blue pencils" - Henry works hard, has very few complaints: some unexpected sprays with watercolor, a couple of smudges with gouache, and one recent ink soak.

2. I did a "big refill" on my fountain pens, did some cleaning, checked nibs on dip pens and such. And now I have them in two rotation boxes (I do this from time to time to make sure that I use my tools and not just have them sitting)

3. And I recently took time to change blades on all my knives. There was a bit of pliers action to make some blades move, but all ended well. I cannot emphasize how nice it is to have a sharp knife. A gift!

All images are clickable for larger size and reading my notes on inks and such.

A Little Trip to Hidden Villa

I had a wonderful time observing animals and humans interact at my favorite local farm. Pigs are my favorite subject there, and I can always count on a few meetings with them. And this time there were some amazing chickens and goats, and the sheep were great too. I used my flexible nib fountain pen and my pocket printmaking tool here. Very small kit - enjoyed it a lot!

Thoughts on Dahlias

I've been thinking about adding dahlias to my little garden, though I hear they are hard to grow - mostly because you have to remember to take the tubers out of the ground and then put them back in, and it has to happen at a certain time. It does not sound too complicated by itself, but the way my garden works (so far) is that as soon as I take something out, I put something else in. So there might be no place for them by the time I should stick them back in - some other lovely plant might be happily growing in their spot. And it feels a little unfair. Dahlias are also maddening for me to draw - but I love trying :) Perhaps I will get a plant too and see if it can survive without leaving the soil for the winter?

Trip to See the Pacific Ocean

It is always amazing to see the ocean, even just for a little bit. I got a very good reason to go look at it and visit a park that I've not been to in a long while: Año Nuevo State Park! Plus I had a chance to stop at several coastal parks around and saw at least two large snakes, both of which disappeared too quickly for me to identify. It was a beautifully sunny day, but the wind was making it quite cold.

A pelican with a damaged wing walked along the beach to the place where I was drawing near a little lagoon, but State Park workers told us that there is nothing we can do to help the dear bird - if it was outside California State Park boundaries, there are services that help damaged birds, but inside - the nature should take its course.

I managed to bring a backpack full of art supplies but forgot water and paper clips, and the wind was taking apart both my sketchbook and tearing marker caps out of my hand! There were a few elephant seals, and we were late to see a promised couple of ospreys, but a family of turkey vultures posed for us on a tree above the sand dunes, and a spectacle of various sea birds diving for fish never gets old!

On My Table: Beginning of September 2026

September found me with several sketching experiments happening at once. Some inspired by ideas for new workshops, some by the markers I recently got (thank you Arrtx for sending me two sets to play with!), and some inspired by an ongoing conversation about limiting the number of tools I carry in my backpack (it is heavy!), and some CMYK brushpens I've been playing on and off.

In addition to that, I learned that my white Uniball Signo pen can be brought to life after refusing to write (I will draw the exact process in my sketchbook today!), and my craft knife needs new blades urgently. I've been using stretchy electric tape to track which markers I use most. And I have picked 2 lovely colors from Ukrainian Watercolor manufacturer Rosa to include in my experiments this month. All that will show in blog posts very soon!

Slow-Opening Irises

I recently found a gift of wonderful bouquet of irises waiting for me on the table. They sat closed for the first couple of days and then opened one by one as I was sitting at the table, finishing some sketchbook catching up and having tea - they managed to change completely between two cups and that was the very first page of my sketchbook 166 :) (Usually I draw my current tools but I think this was very appropriate thing to catch in my daily drawn documentary :)

I Grew Carrots in a Pot!

My garden adventures continue! These exceptionally fragrant and beautifully shaped 12 carrots grew from a seed in a lovely pot and were shared with family and friends after the sketch :) (I also made a bowl they are sitting in, but not the pot they grew in - that is my next step ;)

Let's Draw Google Bikes!

On a day with some amazing clouds I had a little drawing adventure / art materials testing session at the Google Visitor Experience Center. I enjoyed Etchr Hot Pressed sketchbook for the first two sketches and Strathmore Drawing Paper for the last sketch. Lots of different materials were used here and there, but my freshly cleaned flex nib fountain pen was my main drawing joy for this outing.

Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - August 2026.

It is August, and Ukraine is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Independence. There are many phone calls and many memories from 35 years ago, and all the things that happened before and all the things that happened after. I see many videos online that are made along the lines of "a list of the most important moments in the 35 years since Ukraine's independence was proclaimed" - I wonder what my parents would put on that list. Though it might be a tough conversation to have - there are many opinions in the family about many different things :)

But that is a great thing about Ukrainians and their history - there is no "one right version" - there are heated debates about things that happened hundreds of years ago, 25, 15 years ago (and sometimes 15 minutes ago). One thing I am sure about, though - we all are glad that we voted for independence. Freedom of self-determination is worth fighting for.

Since my last update, Mom had some health-related adventures and now has a surprise new hip joint and some follow-ups in the future. Her flowers suffered during her hospital stay because my Dad was watering them 4 times a day, but otherwise he stoically took Mom's absence, played chess, drove his electric wheelchair to stores, and invented even more recipes. Family and friends rallied around him during that time, and we are truly grateful. And always grateful to all who support Ukraine and fight for it!

You can read a whole story about this series of portraits here: War in Ukraine: Guide Through Posts on this Blog.

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 10: Miscellaneous!

As always, there are stories and sketches in each trip that are hard to categorize - I told you most of my Toulouse adventures in the previous 9 posts, but much is still left unsaid! I scanned a few more pages to add here as a reminder that there is more :)

For example, I took an amazing collage class from a long-time online art friend whom I saw in real life for the first time - Marina Grechanik. How we got to share materials with a great group in this class, got bombed by a pigeon, and how much joy it brought me to collage a leaf from that park in my sketch, and how I still think about what I learned there.

And how there were parakeets in the park near our hotel, and apple trees and many interesting birds, and mice and rats - especially if you are out for a stroll at 7 am. How after a few days I had "stairs friends" and how breakfast became my most important meal of the day. How there were fireworks on Bastille Day and an important soccer match watched by the whole country, and how I slept through it all. How there were treasures to find and draw. How I went to an art museum to see Sorolla and saw Bonnard. How I played art games with friends and how I spent an unexpected extra time in Toulouse.

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it.
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 9: City - Shorter Sketches

In the first part of my "City Sketches" report, I collected longer sketches which required more time and more space for my materials.

This is the second part of my report - sketches that were done with a minimum amount of tools which I could whip up in seconds. A few markers, a marker and my pocket printmaking kit, or a few pencils - all had to fit in a little pouch attached to my sketchbook with an elastic band.

And these sketches covered everything - from sketching from a moving boat to a quick stop in a cathedral or sketching while eating an ice cream. By the way, I highly recommend this technique as a timing device - given a choice of overworking a sketch or losing part of my ice cream portion due to melting, I choose saving my ice cream every day!

I like the limited color range, and it is interesting for me to see (again) which sketches were done early in the trip (still stiff, jet-lagged, etc.) and how things opened up one-by-one. Some of these sketches were done at night - I wish I did more night sketching - something to think about!

I hope to use more of this "extended pocket set" of tools - it is very small but more than what I usually have in my pocket (one pen), and it brought me a lot of joy this summer! Here is to a super portable kit that is more than one pen!

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it.
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 8: City - Longer Sketches

I decided to split all my "Toulouse city" sketches into two posts. Mostly because when I look through them, I see two very different approaches and two different things to learn from them.

This is part 1:

These sketches took longer; they are mostly painted with gouache and mixed media, and I used different papers. I can definitely see which ones were done at the beginning of the trip and which ones came later - with a more relaxed and "in the groove" feeling I developed by the end of the trip. Looking at them now - after almost a month since I was there - I wish I could re-do them all :) It is obvious that there were several sketches that had to happen only so that better sketches had a chance. There is a long list of "what is wrong" in my head, but I am working on focusing on positive things in each sketch. So here they are:

I am grateful for the idea of pre-mixing certain gouache colors to take with me.
And that there were not too many of them.
I am glad I thought about pairing my paints with other media in terms of colors and how they work together.
I liked the overlapping, and leaning into a more gestural/dancing approach to composing my pages.
I like how white space worked in the bridge sketch.
And I remember how I enjoyed adding typographical elements - even is it is ineligible mostly now.