'Tis the Season

Mandelschnitte, ink and watercolor

I have another holiday cookie recipe to share with you this week. Mandelschnitte.

It is a friends’ family recipe from my junior high school days. Cinnamon and cloves. So fragrant. I loved the smell and the taste of these cookies and looked forward every year for a chance to have them again.

Life happened and my friends and I moved to different places. The cookies became just memories until years later when we reconnected. I asked for and got the recipe. The first time I made mandelschnitte using their recipe, it took me back to when I was a young teenager in their kitchen. It had been over 30 years since I had had them last. It still makes me so happy to have this recipe. I make it and pecan balls every year now for Christmas. Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Do you have a recipe you only make this time of year? What is it and what’s its story?

Take a Trip with Me to see Where I Get Ideas to Draw

Today I want to share a bit of how my mind wanders and gets inspiration from the things I come across. I took a mental trip to Asia.

Korean roof tile , 700-800 AD

This morning I was reading in A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. Normally it’s a bit of a dry read. I’ve been trying to spend 10 minutes a day reading my way through it as it’s been a book that’s been sitting by my bed waiting for years to be read. The object I read about today was a Korean clay roof tile from 700-800 AD. That sounded rather ordinary, but then I turned the page and saw a lovely detailed and ornamental object that would have been stunning to see in multiples on roof tops. What a surprise! See link to the BBC episode. I immediately started thinking about how would I draw that. Lots of stippling - one of my favorite things - came to mind. So that tile from the past is now on my to-draw list.

Dancheong painted patterns in Korea

I then moved in time to slightly more recent Korea because another thing which is on my want-to-draw list are dancheong. These are decorative colorings in green, yellow, white, blue and red that I’ve seen on older wooden buildings and temples. I love patterns and these are repetitive but not exactly. I don’t know how to sit down and draw one so would like to spend some time with them to figure them out. If I spent long enough on it, I could eventually become a dancheongjang, an artisan who paints dancheong. It’s good to have goals!

My final mental destination today ended up in Japan on the islands of Okinawa. When my son went off to his first year in college this past fall, I came across a subscription service called Bokksu that sends snacks from Japan. Every month he would get a bright orange box filled with snacks designed with some particular theme.

Because of the coronavirus and the pandemic, when he came home early, I had the Bokksu subscription continued but mailed to my house. He was happy to share with me and I have been delighted! I lived in Japan for three years in the 1990’s and have lots of memories from that time. Japanese snacks are so interesting and sometimes so strange to Western tastes. I enjoy both trying them out, but also, and more importantly, I enjoy drawing the snacks and their packaging.

This month’s box was treats from Okinawa. I’ve had an empty package sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks, so that is what won out from my mental world inspirations. I spent about 30 minutes working on the inking of the box and one bag of rice crackers and then another 30 minutes adding some watercolor to it. There are lots more treats to add and taste!

A Collection of Animal Figurines

I made another video today as I added a couple more animal drawings to my collection in my sketchbook. I have a lot of very detailed and fairly realistic animal figurines that I like to pull out every now and then to practice drawing. They move much less than their real counterparts!

Keeping a regular creative habit is something I’ve been doing for the past several years, if not longer. I’m always working on something. I recently started making videos of my drawing process because of prompting from classmates in The Creative’s Workshop. There we are encouraged to post something daily and in a rough form is fine. That has helped me to get over the hurdle of making videos. I used to think they needed to be “perfect” before I would be ready to post or publish them. But with the class, I have been getting better little by little by setting my goals a little bit higher each time as I learn how to do something. Because of that practice I now even have some video lessons ready for live online workshops.

The video is up on YouTube here. You can find my other videos on my YouTube channel under my name.

Do you have any collections you like to draw?

Flip-Through Video of My Portugal Travel Journal and Some Time-Lapsed Drawing

I continue to work on my art daily and have also continued making videos of my drawing process making progress on various projects.

The video I made here is a combination of a flip-through of my Portugal Travel Journal to show where it is currently at.

In the video I also work on one drawing from a hillside in Porto that was opposite the Alfândega where the International Urban Sketchers Symposium was held in 2018.

Conveniently across the street from this collection of houses with all their windows and doors (and laundry!), there was a short wall that was great for sitting. During the Symposium, there were dozens of people sitting along this wall looking at the view in my photograph. It was so much fun walking down and stopping to look at artists’ sketchbook after sketchbook with so many different styles and approaches.

All of my videos are available for viewing on my YouTube channel. Click here or go to YouTube and search on my name.

Do you have lots of pictures from trips sitting in your phone and not being looked at? Have you ever wanted to make a travel journal with some of your photos? I love travel journals and I love teaching my workshop, Create a Travel Journal in Ink and Watercolor. The next one will be done live online via Zoom starting Tuesday, April 14th, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Pacific Time. Check out my workshops page for more information and to register.

A Video of an Ink and Watercolor Sketch of New Art Supplies

I am on day 22/100 of daily creating and sharing efforts as prompted by The Creative’s Workshop. For the past few days I’ve headed in a new direction and have been making daily videos of my drawing progress. Every day I try to add something small to my next video so I can keep learning and improving.

What I challenged myself with this video was combining several clips together as well as some photos. I also added some music playing in the background from copyright free sources. I figure that classical music will often be a good choice to go with drawing.

The video has the sketch being drawn, watercoloring it, labeling and then because it needed something more, some splatters. Various parts worked in this video and various need some refinements in my next video attempts.

https://youtu.be/JortjfdyFK4

My YouTube channel where I’m putting my videos is at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW2C18HZ02vDzBbWV5Xt7Q/

Have you ever made a video of you making or doing something? How did it go? What were the challenging parts for you?

100 Days of Creating! Ready, Set, Go!

I signed up for Seth Godin’s The Creative’s Workshop yesterday. I am both excited and wondering what exactly I have gotten myself in for.

“This is a workshop for writers, painters, playwrights, sculptors, musicians, stand up comics, designers, coaches and anyone else who has a craft and a point of view. It’s for people who have a job doing this work for an organization, or for indies who want to do it on their own.

“In this workshop, you’ll learn to find your voice, to do work that a professional can stand behind, to make a living while making a difference.” Seth Godin on The Creative’s Workshop

The students are creatives from all walks of life, from all over the world. I’ve just been on the class site for over 24 hours and already the range of topics is astounding! In addition to responding to fellow classmates and what inspires you from their stories and comments, the course encourages you to do the Dailies and the Prompts.

Dailies are everyday posts about what you’ve been creating and working on. They can be rough, they can be incomplete, but the challenge is to show up and do them daily for 100 days. More if you want to. The Prompts get sent out three times a week. Since those are external, it can be a challenge to respond, but new ideas can be generated form getting out of your comfort zone.

I signed up because I want to push myself creatively to see what I can do next and because I wanted to meet creatives across disciplines, see what holds them back, what inspires them and what do they do in this workshop. The last day to sign up is February 18th. Join in on the challenge to take your creativity to new places!

My first Daily for the Creative’s Workshop Day 1/100. Chocolate Wrappers, ink and watercolor in my sketchbook.

Travel Journaling in Ink and Watercolor

I like to travel journal after I get home from a trip using my photos and odds and ends that I bring back. This is from a trip to Porto, Portugal. The seagulls are happy to dive bomb unsuspecting diners to snatch treats away. Do watch out!

I use ink and watercolor in Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbooks. I choose pictures from a day that have the most meaning and significance to me and then edit and put them into an arrangement that seems pleasing. I make a rough sketch of the elements on scratch paper. Once I like how it looks, then I start drawing in my sketchbook. I use pencil first, then ink - often with a fountain pen but sometimes with a fine liner but always with permanent waterproof ink, and then I watercolor. I try to leave white space for a title and notes.

If you are interested in learning more of this process to create your own ink and watercolor travel journal from your own photos, check out my workshops to see when the next one will be offered. At the time of this post, my next Travel Journal 6-week workshop will be on Wednesday evenings, 6:15 - 8:45 pm, at Cloud 9 Art School in Bothell, WA.

Porto Travel Journal Page

This is an example of one of my travel journal pages that I do in ink and watercolor. Look at my Workshops page to see when my next Create an Ink and Travel Journal workshop will be held.

Porto Travel Journal Page

This is an example of one of my travel journal pages that I do in ink and watercolor. Look at my Workshops page to see when my next Create an Ink and Travel Journal workshop will be held.

Porto Travel Journal Page

This is an example of one of my travel journal pages that I do in ink and watercolor. Look at my Workshops page to see when my next Create an Ink and Travel Journal workshop will be held.