Ink and Watercolor Pencils

I was sitting on the couch in the living room yesterday evening before starting on cooking dinner and picked up my notebook.  I write thoughts and ideas in this notebook everyday (I now have a whole library of notebooks tucked in all sorts of places around the house) and, quite often, add some sketches of some of my ideas or thoughts.  Yesterday, I was thinking about Christmas and the lake house.

Every year of my life, in the few months preceding Christmas, my mind always drifts to spending Christmas in an Adirondack lodge-type of home or lake house setting.  I have not had the opportunity to do this just yet but I do plan to do this at least once before I have no Christmases left.  

The closest I have come to living this annual dream of spending Christmas in an Adirondack-type lodge or lake house has been a few Christmases spent on various air bases.  Back in my earlier years of my Air Force career, the Airman's Club was typically the hub of social life on every base.  For various reasons, these social hubs have been eliminated from virtually all air bases over the past 20-30 years mostly related to budget cuts but also due to changing attitudes of newer airmen (geez...  I've been around a looong, looong time...  going back those 20-30 years...  upwards of 40 years...  seems like yesterday).  Back when these clubs were a major social hub on every air base, many of them were quite stunning especially at Christmastime.  

Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of those Christmases spent on air bases.  There was no place I'd rather be.  The airman's club was always decorated very well making it very festive, warm and comfortable.  There was always a big fireplace, a beautiful Christmas tree, a bar, a pool table, a dance floor, and often big windows overlooking a scenic part of the air base.  In one or two clubs, there was also a nice baby grand piano.  These clubs often had a sort of big lodge type of feel to them.  Some were smaller and more intimate but many were large with big open rooms and tall cathedral or lodge-type ceilings.  For the few of us who chose to work through the Christmas holiday, the Airman's Club was home when we weren't at work or in the gym.  It was like the family room of any family's home.

Sitting by the fireplace...  sitting at the piano...  relaxing at the bar...  or relaxing on the couch or in an arm chair...  surrounded by my closest friends and those I considered family...  those are definitely some of my fondest memories of Christmas.  

So, whenever Christmas approaches, I think about spending Christmas in a lodge-type place that is warm, comfortable and feels like home.  Yesterday, I was thinking about the lake house and was seeing it clearly in my mind so I picked up my notebook and started sketching with my pen.  After sketching a quick sketch of the lake house, I decided to pull out my watercolor pencils to add some color.

Unfortunately, I quickly drew this ink sketch on lightweight, almost see-through, lined notebook paper rather than a heavier textured art paper simply because it was a spur of the moment quick sketch.  Regardless, I decided to see what I could do with it after I did the quick 10 minute sketch in ink.  Using watercolor pencils on this type of paper is a challenge.  Simply adding water to this type of paper is not recommended at all.  This paper is so thin that it does not absorb watercolors well.  

For a very quick sketch drawn on the wrong kind of paper and drawn mostly from memory, it turned out fairly well...