I have an eclectic collection of wooden utensils in my kitchen. Sketched in pencil plus Cretacolor Graphite Aquarell pencil, then watercolour.

I can’t recall where I got this wire basket, nor do I know if it’s intended for eggs.

I must find out about the type of chickens that lay these colourful eggs. In truth, their colour is much softer than appears here. I must work on getting paler tones.

I saw something on Sketch Book Skool that reminded me how much I enjoy using coloured pencils. So that’s what I used to render this apple and the many attached leaves, a product of picking this right from my friend Rhonda’s tree.

I had some time to pass at the local curling club the other night while the curlers were on the ice. In the clubhouse is this moose head (associated with an annual bonspiel) and the Bunn is in the well-equipped kitchen. Both items take on a certain soft charm in graphite on paper.

I got a box of eggs from a neighbour and was delighted to find an array of coloured eggs in the box. Not one was actually white! To start, I just tackled this single shell which had tints of blue inside. More eggs to come.

One of the Sketch Book Skool videos I watched was on cross hatching, a technique I remember really liking way back in high school art class. Just for fun, I used it here with quite a thick pen, then laid in the colour. I’m proud to say that, with the cooperation of Mother Nature, I grew the acorn squash and Cinderella pumpkin. (Lesson learned: consider which pigments are transparent enough to let the pen line show through)

Thanks to some tips from Sketch Book Skool I got myself restarted drawing regularly again. First “exercise”: using pencil and no eraser, observe carefully, be deliberate with the line, don’t give up, don’t worry about a suitable subject, just draw what’s in front of me.

From another Sketch Book Skool excercise — draw in pen, no pencil outline to start. Observe, slow down and draw. So, even in this quick sketch (less than 5 min.) you can get plenty of information down on paper