Sketching Christmas....

So... all over the place: Pinterest, sketchbook groups online, in print books, ... wherever a sketchbook keeper looks, there are lists of 'prompts' of things to sketch. One such list popped up today when I was on Pinterest, and the prompt for the day was to sketch 'Christmas Stockings.' I looked down at my feet and, what do you know? I had on Christmas stockings!.... more or less. So I sketched them.

One of the MANY lovely things I have learned from my grandchildren is that it is not important to wear matching socks. In fact, my socks live in a free-range drawer. I do try to grab two socks that might not offend each other; that can live in harmony on my feet and with whatever else I have on. And sometimes, they do even match! But not often.

The other interesting thing (to me, at least) about this sketch is that I did it with Watercolor Brushes. I purchased a not-inexpensive set of them several years ago. But when I tried to use them, I found them to be messy and ineffective. Since then, I have seen some terrific sketches done with watercolor brushes, so this morning I decided to try them again. When I had tried them before, I'd wanted to actually sketch with the black brush, but it never loaded enough paint to use that way, and, after making a huge mess, I gave up on them for these several years. Today, though, I sketched with my pen, then just painted with the brushes. All but the black loaded the paint very well, and I really enjoyed using them. In fact, I think I may refill them when they are empty, and keep using them. And the black, which never loaded well, worked great as dry brush for my faded black jeans and for shading. 

However, I did still find them to be messy. It may just be me, but when I was done, it looked like a paint incident had occurred targeting my hands and my bathroom sink. The paint leaks a bit around the pen seam, but it's just watercolor, right? It came out of the sink immediately, and my hands will clean off after a few baths and washing the dishes once or twice. Messiness is never a good reason to discard art supplies!