What's Cookin?

I have been obsessed with sketching and that has been just about all I mention in my blog (well, except for the obligatory grandchildren mentions). But I have a life. Really I do! So I thought I would post a few of the other things I am doing this month.

Knitted fingerless mitts, left is flat knit pair from two years ago.
Right is circular knit pair that were just finished. 

First, my knitting. I started knitting two years ago in December by making the fingerless mitts on the left. As you can tell, I wear them a lot because I love the jewel-like tones of the Lion brand "Landscapes" yarn. But I am annoyed by the seam needed for the flat knit pattern. So I tried again with the same pattern and yarn, but using circular methods. Clearly, my gauge has tightened with experience. And I am apparently thumb challenged because both pairs have one thumb longer than the other. The new pair is too small for me, but too long for my 7 year old granddaughter. Maybe a small women's size?

Poway has a Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. I don't usually get there because I am involved in other activities on Saturday, but occasionally I stop for things I can't get elsewhere. Like Giant Kohlrabi. Unfortunately, the last several weeks there have been no kohlrabi at the only booth that grows them. But I have picked up a few other things. I sketched it last Saturday, trying to focus on the amusing sign, but it doesn't look clear. An urban sketcher I am not, at least not yet. The sign indicates NO dogs, NO ducks, and NO elephants! As you can see, the dog owners are unfazed. but I didn't see any elephants!

#Inktober2019, Poway Farmer's Market 10/26/19
"NO dogs, NO ducks, NO elephants"

Last week at the farmer's market, I splurged on a growler of designer Kombucha, a fermented beverage made from black and/or green tea with added flavors. Kombucha is one of my tea/fermentation passions, but my SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) is not producing the kind of flavor and carbonation that I love in my 'buch. So it is time to grow a new one from fresh kombucha. The last time I tried from my favorite store brand the culture did not grow strongly and was less than satisfactory, so I decided to try again with "chef-made" kombucha. The seller (clearly not the producer) claimed that no carbonation was added to the keg (not sure I believe that) and I loved the fizz and flavor. To grow a new SCOBY, I scald a jar, add one to two cups of fresh kombucha, cover with an air permeable top, leave at room temperature for about one week. On the left is a picture of the new SCOBY after 6 days. It grew very well (the red color is from the berry tea they used in the fermentation). After a week, I added it to my gallon kombucha jug in a half gallon brew of green, black, and mint tea and 1/2 cup sugar. On the right is a picture of the SCOBY on the brew after 3 days. It is growing strongly.

Kitchen, October 2019. In front is a jar growing the new
 Kombucha SCOBY.

Kombucha brew with new SCOBY
after 3 days at room temperature.

I was going to crop out the background of the SCOBY starter jar, then realized it is a good cross-section of my kitchen pursuits.

In the picture with the new SCOBY you can see my sprouting container with a mix of alfalfa, clover, radish, fenugreek and lentils on the far left. This time of year, with warmer temperatures in my kitchen, it takes about 5 days to grow to the size I prefer.

In the middle left behind the jar is an heirloom pumpkin that I bought when they went on sale last year. More on that in a minute.

Hanging on the wall is my homegrown Stevia plant drying for the winter. I don't eat sugar and don't like the flavor and processing of store bought stevia so I tried growing my own. I add a couple of leaves to teas and smoothies. I like the flavor of fresh leaves better than dried, which add a taste that reminds me of dried alfalfa, but stevia is a warm weather plant so I don't expect it to grow in the winter. But then again, this is my first year so I might be surprised.

in the middle right is my pottery onion pot, made during my clay-throwing period. On the far right is my InstantPot, a deeply appreciated gift from my daughter-in-law. My favorite uses are Indian cookery and cooking dried beans without having to plan ahead to pre-soak. Love it!!

Unknown variety of heirloom squash, raw and baked.

This time of year I stock up on winter squash. Usually Butternut because it is most available. In November, the pumpkins and unusually colored squashes get marked down. I'm not a fan of the flavor of pumpkin and I prefer to make pies from butternut squash. My favorite squash is Buttercup, but although common in Michigan, I rarely find them out west. Last year about this time, a basket of large heirloom squashes was marked down to $0.99 each, so I bought two. One quickly rotted and the other has been sitting on the counter being decorative for a year. With butternut, the insides would be dried, sometimes moldy, with sprouting seeds and stringy flesh long before a year was up. I almost threw out this squash, but decided to check it. It is as moist, smooth and full of flavor as a fresh squash. I am amazed! I can't find a picture of an heirloom squash that looks the same. Maybe a Jarrowdale cross, as they are known for keeping a long time.

After baking slices of squash smeared with olive oil, salt, and spices I made soup with it. There is no sweetness to this squash, but a rich and complex flavor much better than pumpkin (which is actually a squash). The remaining half will make great pie after roasting and pureeing. I experimented with sweet potato banana pie to see if I could make it sugar free. It turned out okay except for the banana flavor. This time I will try adding some stevia leaves and dates to the puree.

#Inktober2019 10/29 Wilted Dahlias.

It was hot, dry, and windy when I went to the farmer's market last weekend. So I got a good deal on some wilted dahlias, which are still sitting on my counter. I missed two days of Inktober sketches but the flowers were my inspiration today. Inktober is almost over. I loved it!

Tea and Toasty

The weather has turned hot and toasty. The Santa Ana winds are a feature of fall and early winter in southern California. The temperatures this week have been in the 90s during the day and in the 50s at night. That means my house can be cooled down at night enough to stay in the 70s inside, if I shut it up in the morning. The thing that keeps us all on edge this week is the very low humidity, around 7% during the day, and the increasing winds. Until I moved here, I had not experienced the oddness of taking a glass jar of liquid out of the refrigerator and having such low humidity that no moisture condensed on the glass. The winds have been gusty today, but tonight the wind is rising and causing creaks and snaps in the house as things dry out. I was living in a canyon south of here in 2003 during the Cedar fire. I saw the fire tornadoes lick up over the hills south of us when Scripps Ranch was burning. We had no police or fire coverage in our neighborhood, even though the fire came to within a mile of my house in Beeler Creek Canyon. I am glad that lessons were learned during that tragic fire. But I am jittery when the weather turns toasty.

#Inktober2019 10/24/19
Yixing clay Conch teapot
Inks: Monteverde Joy Sepia, Noodler's Lexington Gray,
diluted India ink wash, Sakura Gelly Roll white
Strathmore Toned Tan sketch paper

I have a passion for tea. When it is hot and dry, I like to have a pot of jasmine green tea. So for today's #Inktober2019 sketch, I chose another one of my teapot collection. This teapot looks very much like a conch shell. It holds 1 cup of tea, which makes it just enough for one small cuppa. I haven't actually used it for tea yet. I either drink my tea Gong fu style, with my 120ml teapot or I drink a 2 cup teapot full of tea as I did today.

Two Yixing clay unglazed teapots.
120ml capacity in the smaller, right teapot.

Gong fu (or Kung fu) is a ceremonial process in which tea leaves are steeped for successive, very short periods of time in a small amount of hot water. I typically fill one of my 120ml teapots about one quarter full of leaves, add water just off the boil to the top, cover (and pour water over the teapot as well if I am using an unglazed Yixing clay pot) and steep 15 seconds for the first steep.














Then I pour the tea into my tiny teacup and continue the steeps with each one 5 seconds longer than the steep before. I can get 5 to 8 steeps before the tea becomes tasteless or bitter. The tiny cups of tea cool quickly. and each successive steep is piping hot. That is so much more satisfying than waiting and waiting for a mug of tea to cool enough to drink, then having the tea become tepid before I can finish the mug.

#Inktober2019 10/22/19

One of this weeks #Inktober sketches was of one of my tiny (30ml), unglazed clay teacups with a clay frog (made for me long ago by my friend Michael) and a tea coaster. The frog's right eye came out wonky, I'm not sure why. I seemed to be sketching it as I saw it, but I guess not.

Two minute pose sketches
www.lineofaction.com
Marco Rainbow pencil and 2B graphite pencil

I practiced a few 2 minute poses yesterday. Two minutes goes by shockingly fast! The book I read today, Draw People Every Day, recommends starting with 30 second poses. I found this book to be quite helpful. I think I could only sketch a couple of main lines in 30 seconds. In the book, his assertion is that doing hundreds of 2 to 3 minute studies will raise my skill level faster than a few dozen over-worked long poses. Short poses are fun to sketch, but they use up my sketchbook paper quickly, so I think I will switch to printer paper for a while. I started these poses with my Marco Rainbow pencil because the colors have such a cheery effect! Then I switched to a 2B graphite pencil because it was smoother and faster to sketch with. I have a journal in which I take notes as I read different drawing books. I intend to add some reviews of these books as I progress.

#Inktober2019, week two close-out

Here are the sketches to close out week 2 of the #Inktober2019 challenge. My goal is to focus on shading, sometimes as hatching, sometimes with broader lines.

#Inktober2019 number 9 Black and white inks.

Toned paper makes for interesting contrast with black, gray or white inks. The goodie box that came this week included two books with colored drawing paper. I can't bring myself to use the oh-so-precious Field Notes Sweet Tooth book with luscious red paper yet, reasoning that I have to get better at drawing before sullying its pages. But, I did use the blue papered notebook. The idea with toned paper is to use the color of the paper for one of the shading values, the mid-range in this case. The sketch is a blue glazed tea cup. Pens used were a Pentel pocket brush pen and a Sailor Fountain pen (blue) with a fude nib and the black cartridge ink that came with the pen. The white highlights were from a Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

#Inktober2019 number 10 grapes

I wanted more color for the grapes. The shading was done with waterbrushes using diluted Namiki blue ink and diluted Joy Sepia ink. The pens were a Kuretake #13 brush pen with Malachite green, a Pilot Metropolitan Fine nib with a mix of blue and purple ink, and two Wing Sung 6359 EF nibs with Vert Empire green and Chocolate brown inks.

#Inktober2019 number 11 The laughing pencil case

Day 11. I went back to shading with hatching. I mostly sketch for the #inktober challenge just before bed, using what is quick and handy. My new pen case, a gift from my sister, and the new Monteverde DC Supershow Teal ink from Goulet pens (on their discount shelf) seemed like a great match. The pen was a Wing Sung 6359, EF nib.

#Inktober2019 number 12. 2 minute poses

One of my sketching goals is to be able to quickly draw people in action. They don't have to be recognizable to anyone who knows them, in fact I think it's safer to publish pictures that are unrecognizable, but I do want to show the emotions and gestures. So I am reading several books on sketching people. Here is my nightly practice from poses rotated on a timed basis via a great website. The pen was a Jinhao x750 with fude nib. The Jinhao is thicker than the Sailor fude pen, and heavier as it is made of metal (probably brass?). I like the line capability, but all my Jinhao pens seem to dry up more quickly than my better pens. They are cheap and pretty, but I only use my less expensive inks in them.

My day as a journal sketch

I have been wildly utilizing the library links to request books on sketching that are not available locally. Which also means I have been madly reading and keeping notes as I go. One book, "Draw Your Day" by Samantha Dion Baker was loaded with lively and inspiring sketches, but not much how-to information (which is what I feel that I desperately need at this stage). But I was interested in the main premise of the book, which is that you can journal by making a two-page spread with sketches of the focal events of the day. So I decided to give it a try. 
I definitely need practice on this, but publishing my beginning attempts might encourage some others who, like me, feel that their sketches lack any artistic value. Bloggers who have posted their early attempts are the reason I took the plunge into sketching and publishing, so maybe someone will also be inspired by my sketches to overcome that insecurity obstacle.

Day 1: Technology Day. I resurrected a PDA and folding keyboard after 10 years of neglect. 
The batteries had split open and the inside of the keyboard was corroded badly.
After cleaning, it functioned! Briefly. The second time I opened it, it was unresponsive.
Oh well...

Various inks and pens on Artist's Loft journal paper.

Day 2: A Day of Birds. I guess if you look, you can always find a theme. Watching a Roadrunner follow the sidewalk is a rare treat. And the tiny bird that hit my kitchen window gave me a chance to see an Orange-crowned warbler up close. I hear them often in the willows behind my house, but rarely see them.

Orange-Crowned Warbler sitting on my porch after hitting the window.
He recovered and flew away after about 15 minutes (I actually can't tell the gender).

I swear the crows are just playing with the wind as they careen in between the houses in my neighborhood.

Crows sketched with Kuretake Brush Pen. The warbler was inked with Platinum Black and colored with pencils.
Other inks and pens were used, also diluted inks in water brushes. Artist's Loft journal paper.

I skipped sketch day that was just blah...  Day 4 includes a quick sketch of one of the local reservoirs that I visit frequently. What was up with the flies?? One of the blessings of SoCal is the scarcity of flies and mosquitoes so that I leave doors open when I am going in and out of the house. This day of the Flies was bizarre. Then I babysat my grands for the evening. Yeah, I need a lot of practice on people.

Various pens and inks, Faber-Castell watercolour pencils, pastels on Artist's Loft journal paper.

Another frequent location, my local library, has a perforated shade roof over the courtyard. A lovely arrangement with cut-outs in the shape of leaves that I failed to adequately capture. And perspective is a skill I am working on as well.

Library shade structure on top right. Personal present day! The colored pencils and inks that I ordered came in, Oh Happy Day!! Koh-I-Noor TriTone Pencils, Artist's Loft Journal Paper, Diamine Chocolate Brown and various inks, Kuretake Brush Pen

I added a Sailor Fude de Mannen pen to the pen herd and had to test it out. It was surprisingly fun to sketch my sling bag with it! I can't in any way explain my emotional attachment to my pens. It's almost as if they are like pets to me. I loved the Sailor Pen, thinking I preferred it over my Jinhao fude pen, until I wrote with the Jinhao to compare. They are different in the style of the nib, the Sailor is thinner and doesn't have noticeable tipping material. But, maybe I am getting more adept at making lines of different widths with a fude nib, I found that I liked each of them the same. The only downside to the Jinhao is that, being metal, it is heavier than I like in a pen. But the Sailor is made of a cheap feeling plastic that I don't really enjoy so that ends up being a balancing factor.

Sailor Fude de Mannen pen on top, with included Sailor Black cartridge ink.
Shading on backpack is Noodler's Lexington Gray in a brush pen.
Text and box on the bottom was a comparison with my Jinhao x750 fude nib pen.
Ink in that pen is Lexington Gray also. Pens colored with various inks and pencils.
Exceed 100gsm journal paper

Cheap Journal Compare

Top left are Exceed journals; top right are Letterbox journals; bottom is my current journal, Artist's Loft.

Hi, my name is Anne and I am a journal junkie. It has been about two weeks since I have purchased an unneeded journal just because it was pretty and a good price. I have a small shelf of pretty, unused journals that I found in clearance bins. I have given several journals to friends as gifts when I find out that they like to journal. So I'm writing a little info on the current, past, and future journals that I actually use. I made some sketches in each of four of the above journals for a comparison. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink laid down with a juicy fude nib has lots of bleed-through (where the ink actually soaks through to the back of the paper and sometimes to the sheet behind), so I made a sketch in each journal as a comparison of how the paper handles fountain pen ink.

Costco carries a three pack of Letterbox journals for $12.99 at selected times during the year. These are the journals I used for my first two years of bullet journaling. They have 80 sheets (160 pages) of cream colored, lined paper. I have a note that the weight is 80gsm, I'm not sure where I got that figure, but it is consistent with my experience with these books.

Things I like:

+Fountain pen friendly - Rarely bleed-through, and very little show-through (the writing is discernible as a shadow on the back side, but the ink does not soak through) with all my pens except the Sharpies.

+Paper color is not quite yellow, but not stark white. Colors show up well.

+10 inch by 7 inch hard cover that is sturdy enough to withstand eight months of daily use and traveling. The three packs are available with various bright covers, or dark shades. The books open flat.

+One ribbon book mark and a sturdy back pocket.

+Did I mention the price? $4.34 each. Unbeatable.

Reasons I have moved on:

-a little larger than is convenient to carry.

-dark lines are a distraction behind the sketches I like to include. I have checked the Spicebox website (where the price is considerably more than Costco) and there are no plain or dotted page options in these journals.

Letterbox journal sketch with Jinhao x750, fude nib.
Ink is Noodler's Lexington Gray. Hand 19.

Letterbox journal, back side of Hand 19.
 Some bleed-through visible.

Michael's craft store carries a line of Artist's Loft journals.

Things I like:

+Hard covers that open flat in several bright colors. The binding has held up well to daily carry for 3 months. Includes two ribbon bookmarks but no back pocket.

+true A5 size (8 x 6 inches)

+white paper available with dotted format. Said to be 80 gsm weight, but it does not perform as if the paper is that heavy.

+Only $5, a great price!

Reasons I am moving on:

-Not friendly to all fountain pens. Show-through and bleed-through with some inks.

-buckles and bleeds with even light washes.

-Platinum Carbon Black ink feathers and that is one of my main inks for bullet entries.

Artist's Loft journal paper.
Jinhao with fude nib
Noodler's Lexington Gray ink.
 Hand 17

Artist's Loft paper, back of
Hand 17. Heavy bleed-through. The ink
actually soaked into the second page.

Walmart stocks Exceed journals in two paper weights, soft and hard covers, and three sizes. In 2018 I bought a large format (7.5 x 9.75 inches), dotted (came also in lined format), softcover journal with one ribbon bookmark and a back pocket for $8.64. The paper is cream colored, 78 gsm with no coating. I use it as my pen and ink notebook. I see show-through and sometimes bleed-through with many fountain pens and inks, so I wouldn't consider it for most journaling or sketching. I generally only use one side of the page when I am using fountain pens, or I live with the show-through behind what I write on the back side of a page. Still, the paper handles fountain pens better than the Artist's Loft journal, with no feathering of Carbon Black ink.

Exceed 78gsm paper, Jinhao with fude nib.
Noodler's Lexington Gray ink. Hand 20

Exceed 78gsm, back of page
Hand 20 showing bleed-through.

In 2019, the paper was changed in Exceed journals. There are now three sizes available with 100gsm, coated paper. I have the new A5 journals which come with 120 sheets (240 pages), two ribbon bookmarks, hard covers, multiple cover colors and a back pocket. They do not lie quite as flat as the lighter paper version, but it is acceptable to me (although I do have to sometimes hold the page down as I sketch). The two smaller sizes cost less than $9, the larger size (soft cover) is around $13. The paper does not have bleed-through, and little show-through with the inks I use. Light, water washes result in a little buckling, but still no bleed-through. 

Exceed 100gsm paper; Jinhao with fude nib;
Noodler's Lexington Gray; Hand 18
No bleed-through or show-through on back

Exceed 100gsm paper; Platinum Carbon Desk Pen;
Platinum Carbon Black Ink; Wing Sung 6359 pen with
Diamine Chocolate Brown Ink; Faber-Castell watercolour pencils
with water wash.

Exceed 100gsm paper. Back side of Butterfly entry. No bleed-through and very slight show-through
 of green leave wash on left.
Minimal buckling of paper.

In summary- for my usage preferences: 
Text journaling: Letterbox journals- good paper; acceptable for fountain pens; bargain price. 

Sketch journaling: Exceed 100gsm, A5 size, great paper; fountain pen friendly; accepts light water wash with minor buckling; reasonably priced.

Unacceptable for journaling (according to my usage): Artist's Loft journal; show-through with all my pens and inks except Pigma Microns; bleed-through and feathering with fountain pens; using a water wash makes for heavy bleed-through and buckling.

Fountain pens for sketching

Three fountain pens came in the mail today that I have been wanting to try for sketching. All three of these pens have the capability to draw from thin to thick lines depending on the pressure, or the angle, at which the nib is used.

1. Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen - from eBay ($8.95). The plastic that the pen is made with has a cheap feel to it, but the real brush (as opposed to a felt tip that is used like a brush) lays down a rich, gushy line. I need some practice, but it is exciting to use this brush to get a quick sketch with fewer details.

7/16/19 Sydney hamster, gestural study. Kuretake Brush Pen with Kuretake black ink.

The black ink cartridge that was included was deep black, and appeared to be water resistant as it did not wash well even when fresh.

7/16/19 Hand #13 Kuretake brush pen, Kuretake black ink.

2. Jinhao X750 with a Fude nib installed - from eBay ($3.56) The eBay description is a calligraphy nib because this nib lays down a thick to thin variable line depending on the angle of the nib to paper. It is used in Chinese calligraphy. I need more practice with this nib also, but I was really happy with the results. The ink goes down very smoothly. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink is water resistant, but if I put a water wash down first, it makes acceptable shadows.

7/16/19 Hand # 14 Jinhao X750 -Fude nib; Noodler's Lexington Gray ink; Artist's Loft journal paper

I have several other Jinhao X450/750 pens. They are metal bodied (brass, I think) pens that I find to be pretty, but too heavy and unbalanced. The nibs are medium width, which is very wet and gushy, so I expected that the feed on a Jinhao X750 would be able to keep up with a fude type nib. I took pictures of the medium nib and the fude nib side by side. The tip of the fude is bent (which gives fude nibs the thick to thin line variability) and does not have the "iridium" tipping ball that I see on the medium nib. Otherwise it looks the same to my eye.

Jinhao fude nib on the left, Jinhao medium nib on the right. The style and lettering are the same.

Jinhao fude nib on the bottom, notice the bend upward and the lack of a balled tip when compared to the Jinhao medium nib on top.

3. Jinhao X750 with a Zebra G flex nib installed. eBay ($4.50) Zebra G dip nibs are popular for drawing Japanese Manga comics. They flex very widely and easily by putting light pressure downward on the nib. I have used these nibs as dip nibs with a holder, and found the spidery thin lines and the wide flex to be great for lettering, but I don't like how frequently I have to dip the nib when using fountain pen ink. There are YouTube videos on how to hack the nib to fit in a Jinhao pen, but my attempts to hack pens have not gone well for me. So I ordered this pen, hoping the wet feed would be able to keep up. The result was initially beautiful, but soon had major railroading (the two track lines) even though I went painfully slow. I will NOT be drawing Manga, or any other sketches, with this pen!

Comparison of Jinhao Fude nib pen with Jinhao Zebra G Nib pen. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink in fude, Diamine Oxblood ink in Zebra G. Notice the railroading in the word "Zebra". Rhodia #16 paper.