A bag with four buckles

This bag has been hanging around our house forever, but as with many things, sometimes you see it differently when it gets moved. In the course of some recent closet reorganization, it came out of a dark corner into the light and I was reminded of how beautiful it is. It was purchased in Crete many years ago, and has followed us around from home to home. I tried first to paint it in watercolour but I couldn’t capture patina or the worn curves of the thick leather so I drew it in ink instead. I think this version has more solidity.

Plants and Flowers workshops update

This week’s bone-chilling cold weather has given me some time to finish up stuff in my studio. Here are the final versions of two pages that were started in November when I was teaching one-day workshops very close to my home in Hudson, Quebec.

I was so thrilled to be able to welcome students to Le Collectif’s bright studio space. I’ve been searching for a workshop venue close to home, and this studio is so inviting and warm, even on a dreary November day. I love the way we were able to group all the tables together so that everyone could share plants and flowers that they had brought in.

By the end of the day, most of us hadn’t quite finished our pages, but I took photos anyway. I was thrilled with the varied and beautiful results.

Now that I’ve found this great venue, I hope to host more workshops close to home. If you want to get on my notification list for upcoming events, just sign up here.

Get me out of this thing

Alice had surgery yesterday, but don’t worry, all is well. It was a small thing that had to be removed from her knee but we were happy to hear that it was benign. Last night when we brought her home she was still confused from the anaesthetic, but today she is very alert and wondering why this thing is around her neck.

In the instructions from the vet, they call this an Elizabethan collar. Sounds very fancy. But for her it’s a nuisance that she must wear for 10 days. She keeps bumping into things with it, and looking at me pleadingly to remove it. I try to compensate her, and assuage my own guilt, by giving her treats. Tonight she had some chicken liver with her dinner.

Profiles at the donut shop

I was back at the donut shop today, drinking coffee and drawing people. This time I went to a more crowded shop in another town so that I could see more faces. I also sat in a booth with a good view of people, instead of facing the lineup at the cash register.

This was one of those shops where everyone knew each other, so there was a lot of sitting around and gabbing, and lots of joking between different groups. For the sketches below, I always start the same way. I draw the line of the shoulders first and then fit the head on top of that. That really helps me to get the angles of the head and face. I don’t carry an eraser on these outings. If a line is in the wrong place, I just draw right over it and keep going.

People and dogs

I couldn’t get to the donut shop to draw today. Instead I spent a few hours doing a long overdue studio cleanup, and then set up for a short session of drawing practice, using my own photos as reference.

In an attempt to get better at putting people into urban scenes when I am sketching on location, I selected pedestrians from a series of photos I took last year when I was in the UK. I selected each of them because they were moving, and I tried to capture their motion. I’m hoping that if I do enough of these, when I have real people moving in front of me, I will having some drawing memory of how all the bits fit together. To that, I added some dogs, since I also want to get better at drawing dogs other than Alice.

And to all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends like we did last month on Canadian Thanksgiving.

A podcast suggestion and, reluctantly, a Black Friday Week sale on online courses

I’m not quite sure how I found it (useless scrolling on social media, no doubt), but over the weekend I discovered a podcast called Ill-advised by Bill Nighy. I’ve long been a fan of his acting, and the podcast is laugh-out-loud funny. At the end of his first episode, Nighy offers a playlist and a book suggestion, recommendations which I enjoyed. In the “About” notes, he says the podcast is “for people who don’t get out much and can’t handle it when they do.” At the end, he acknowledges that people have busy lives and he wants you to feel free to ignore his podcast.

That’s sort of the way I feel about Black Friday promotions. And so, despite my reluctance to jump on the bandwagon, I’m having a Black Friday Week sale too. Here are the facts and, as Bill Nighy says, feel free to ignore them.

During Black Friday Week, this baker’s dozen of popular courses is priced at 30% OFF each for a full 8 days, with even bigger savings if you buy the entire bundle. My Black Friday sale ends at midnight ET on Sunday, November 30, 2025. To save, use the coupon code CARBONBLACK30 at checkout.

First snow

Winter arrived early this year. And stayed. We had an unexpected early snowfall — wet flakes that accumulated on branches still heavy with leaves. The power was out for a night and a day. Most of us were caught without our winter tires on. It was a little chaotic for a few days, as the start of winter always is.

Usually with an early blizzard like this, the snow would be gone in a day or two but it has stayed. And more snow has fallen. I might be the only person to appreciate this early winter. My wheelbarrows were not quite in the right position for painting but I set up a chair in front of my patio door and sketched them. I tried to convey the weight of that early snow on the surrounding evergreens, and the way the wheelbarrows are a bit hidden in the trees.