Generosity of Artists

Today was a treat in multiple meanings of the word. in late May I sent off a package of chocolate with one of my cards to a friend because her birthday was coming up. I had learned she didn’t have local access to Theo’s chocolate, a Seattle based chocolate company, and we had been talking about their chocolate. She reciprocated in mid-June for my birthday but unfortunately I never got the package. It seemed that it had gotten lost or perhaps was mis-delivered somewhere.

Birthday chocolates and card from an artist friend

Yesterday, I found out that she tried again and once again I hadn’t gotten it. Disappointing, and yet unlikely to have happened twice. We figured out what happened. She had sent the packages to the place I had shipped her package from. I called them this morning and yay! the boxes were there!

So I got two birthday packages to enjoy with chocolate and hand painted cards. My friend is a talented urban sketcher and watercolorist. Look for @lylopa on Instagram. Her work is beautiful. I regularly drool over it on instagram. And now I have two of her sketches to admire and look at.

I also have chocolate to draw!

One of the lovely things that happens with artists is often trading work with one another. One person likes something of another artist and often trades of work happen. It’s a great way to be generous and yet also receive.

Sharing and having more art because of it. What a great thing!

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!

Chocolate Bar Wrappers!

Some people collect wine labels, but I collect chocolate bar wrappers! I've noticed that over the years, wrappers and packaging for chocolate bars are getting more and more interesting and beautiful. With more smaller, specialty chocolatiers making chocolates, there are even more lovely wrappers out there to admire and collect. I then like to draw them in my sketchbook and have them all in one place. For this chocolate bar from Trader Joe's, I used my Platinum carbon pen and ink, a green Micron Pigma 03 pen, and a Faber Castell Artist Pitt pen in addition to watercolor. It is in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook.