EUREKA!!!!!! PROBLEM SOLVED AT LAST!

iPad Mini Sketchbook Setup #1 

iPad Mini Sketchbook Setup inside view

iPad Mini Sketchbook Setup 

iPad Mini Sketchbook Setup side view

I thought the iPad would be the perfect travel sketching tool but the glare on the screen made it impossible to use outdoors in bright light.  I kept thinking about how to create a practical way to shield the light.  Nothing useful ever came to mind.  In the meantime, I have purchased an iPad Mini for outside the house because I found the iPad weighing my purse down with all the other "stuff" we women deem necessary to have at all times!  So now I have one for travel and one for the house.  Extravagant, I know, but loving it!!!

Last night I was cleaning out a box and came across a beautiful small leather zippered notebook I haven't used in years.  It was designed to hold a pad of paper, pen, calculator etc.  In a flash of insight, I realized my iPad Mini would fit in this case and I thought of a way to use it for sketching in daylight.  The same idea would work with a larger zippered notebook for the full size iPad.

Here are the few simple items needed for this idea:  Zippered notebook (the zipper keeps the iPad from slipping out of the case) a bending straw to hold the lid in place, a cleaning cloth, a few makeup sponges to create a slight angle (optional) a piece of rubber shelf lining to keep the iPad from slipping around inside the case while drawing (optional) a stylus for drawing (optional but recommended).  

I am going out today and try my new invention.  Can't wait!!!!!!

NEW PAINT!

LEATHER SKETCHBOOK: MANZANITA BARK

This is another addition to my beautiful leather sketchbook.  On Orcas Island it is lush with woodlands.  One of the common trees is the Manzanita which has a rich burnt sienna colored bark.  This is a little sketch of the bark peeling on the trunk.  I was fortunate to receive a prize of M Graham watercolor paints from the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society annual show.  The colors are rich and luminous. I decided to try them in the sketchbook fresh out of the tube.  Loved the feel and handling of the paint.

KEEPING MY HAND IN!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND HIKE: OAK TREES

I don't have as much time as I would like to paint, but I thought I would continue to fill up my beautiful leather sketchbook with a painting based on some photos I took over Thanksgiving.  The Oak trees have very rough bark and amazing twisting branches.  They are so much more fun to paint than the straight limbed variety of tree.  I think I will devote this sketchbook to my adventures with my children.    I can sit in my studio and relive the beauty and the fun and have a special keepsake when I have filled all the pages.