three letter word for art

The downtown San Antonio Starbucks (one of several, actually) has a second floor with an outdoor patio, but the railings and parapet make it difficult to sketch much of the view while sitting down, so I don't sketch there often.  A few days ago I finally bit the bullet and did a sketch standing up to get a better view.  This is that sketch.  Also, it's a watercolor.  

I'm forcing myself to get out and work in color, if only to get a little more comfortable with water media.  The color itself isn't the problem-- I've painted in oils so long that I'm fairly confident in terms of what I see color-wise.  It's just that watercolors are the exact opposite of oil paint.  Oil is forgiving.  You can add or subtract easily to cover up your mistakes, and you can mix right there on the canvas.  Watercolor requires a lot more discipline, and I just haven't gotten there yet.  We'll see...

san antonio museum of art , originally uploaded by paul heaston . You know, if I'd just break out the watercolors more often, I might actually get a little better. I need to work larger and darker, I think. I'll try to come back to SAMA for some more watercolor attempts. This was actually done from a vacant lot just outside the SAMA parking lot, and I'm pretty sure now that I was trespassing. But what's done is done (though I may go back again).

For a minute there I thought I might try a watercolor notebook as my new everyday sketch journal. I use them all the time for "special" sketches, but I thought it would be interesting to always have one with me. Mistake. Because I always keep it in my back pocket, and because it's hot here in Texas (and because that heat causes me to sweat), the notebook kept getting damp--not really damp, but the paper would get humid enough to affect the way my pens work. That and I never keep watercolors on me, so the whole idea of having special paper that I wasn't watercoloring in seemed superfluous. The optometrist waiting room while Linda got her eyes checked out: A car:

How 'bout some recent watercolor sketches?

A Quick-Grip: (by the way, I have loads of respect for Irwin, the company that makes these, for not calling them "Qwik-Grips" or "Kwik-Grips" or some other intentional misspelling.) My Sennelier watercolor kit, which I use too infrequently:

Got a Koi watercolor kit the other day, and a Hand Book clothbound sketchbook in Portland that I tried out for the first time today at Rockford Coffee.

downtown bozeman, montana pano watercolor , originally uploaded by paul is just dandy . Ink and watercolor on block, 8" x 3"

The Bozeman Hotel sits at the corner of Rouse and Main, at what is now the eastern edge of the most historic part of downtown Bozeman. I'm starting a series of tiny ink and watercolor drawings of historic Bozeman buildings. This is the first, at 4" x 3". without color with color

figure drawings from a three-hour weekly session at MSU