Apple-Pine: February 2026

How I took Apart Posca Brush Pen and Made a Custom Color Marker

(This is a page from my sketchbook with my notes on the process)

I have a love-hate relationship with Posca markers: I want to use them because of the portability of opaque paint, but colors are often not suitable for my taste, and the flow of these markers is a question of endless negotiations. I always wanted to see if I would like them with a brush tip, and when I saw the very first one, I got two colors on sale: very artificial-looking pink and green. Neither is exactly the first color I reach for, but I knew already that I could mix a very cool purplish gray with them.

Originally, brush tip markers worked ok - the pump would make them juicy, and I could work these colors into my sketches. But quite quickly the flow got worse and then stopped altogether. That is when I decided to take them apart, and this is a video about that story:

Blooming Trees: Magnolias

This year magnolia trees are blooming earlier than before. I took a bunch of my sketchbooks off the shelves and looked through the months of February and March. Based on my sketchbooks, my main hunt for blooming magnolia trees only begins at this time (mid-February); however, a few trees that I visited this week were already dropping petals faster than I could sketch them!
Never fear - there are still a few trees that I plan to visit - they were usually late bloomers - I like those :)

Yellow Chrysanthemums

I believe this was a potted flower destined to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Happy New Lunar Year of a Flaming Horse to all who celebrate!), but when I got it, it became a bright reminder to experiment with my art supplies! I have a whole bunch of small and large sketches of it already - and here is a first batch I wanted to share:

Nonagenarian Update: winter 2026

Winter's dark months are hard for our nonagenarian. She sleeps more and cares about her attire less. But when asked, she replies that she is happy and content. We got some additional help and things are more or less on track: doctors visited, meds taken, shots received, books read, plants watered, birds fed :)

A Gift of Two Lemons

I got these beautiful lemons from a stranger. I was deep in conversation with my walking companion as we passed this lovely house and all of a sudden a lady came out in front of us, smiled and said - please take some free lemons! We could not resist the Cyrano (misspelled in my sketch) - or perhaps these are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza? Many other names were suggested by the time we got home. I took photos and sent them to my parents and friends. I enjoyed the fragrance and shapes, and how paint spilled and moved when I made this sketch. And very much enjoyed the lemon pie that these ended up in. The pie disappeared too quickly for me to make a sketch - but here are the lemons!

Bike and Sketch

One of the best things to add to riding a bike is a sketching stop!

Virtual Traveling (with Street View World Tour) - People at Work

I traveled (virtually) all over the world this week to draw people at work! I joined monthly online gathering of #streetviewworldtour - and had lots of fun drawing with a nice group of people. This month a guest artist was none other than Eleanor Doughty - she and he co-host Jenny Adam (who was a guest artist last month but that being the first of January I missed) organized A Street View World Tour some time ago and now they have a website streetviewworldtour.com!

It is a monthly fun, no-pressure gathering where we travel via google maps, draw from the street view as a group - online. I had a set of tools prepared for a specific technique to try in this session but at the last minute had to switch my drawing space and glad I had a chance to make some mess with different tools!

My previous participations include a trip to Kharkiv, Ukraine where I was the guest artist, Drawing Sky Holes, Kenya, Boats, Night Life, Hawaiian Foliage, Light and Shadow, and Japan, Ohio, Arizona and Taipei, Convenience Stores Around the World, Castles, Urban Gardens, (I am quite sure that I participated in a few more but I am not sure I ever posted about them - will try to find and add to this collection!)

Early Bloom: January in California

Everything is blooming a little earlier this year - and these decorative pear trees are first in my collection of California blossoms this year. It was a gorgeously sunny day. I used my printmaking kit and gouache - you can see process photos below - click on the image to see it larger.

On My Table: Beginning of February 2026

I am excited to be one of the teachers at the 14th International Urban Sketchers Symposium which will be happening in July of 2026 in Toulouse, France! (click on the image to see a short video with a description of my workshop) and here is a link to the program where you can see all the details and an amazing collection of sketchers and teachers from around the world.

And one of the things I am working on this month is finalizing the contents of the toolkit that each of the participants of my workshop in Toulouse will receive!

Trip to Bonaire: Sketchbook Video (Flip Through) and Sketches from the Article

I made a little video of the Bonaire part of the sketchbook - you will be able to see how all these sketches fit together and tell the whole story of the trip: