Woo Hoo!

The faithful stay up late to watch the games!

Happy medium

A little bit of playing with the new FC Albrecht Durer w/c pencils

A great train of thought from the design conference from Sir Ken Robinson:

"People who are most creative love the medium that they work in.
Everyone is creative.
You simply need to find your medium. "

I have been working with my Pilot Hi-Tec pens and markers quite intensively the last few days. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend working a little more with chocolate, fresh produce and the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils that arrived yesterday.

TGIF!

Did someone say cookies? Join in on the fun!

I've been

Busy working!


Geh! This isn't even the half of it ...

But before this work frenzy, I got these in:


Click on any of the images to see them larger. >click!<



This last one was done with the Prismacolor Premier ("OOooo. 'Premier'! ") Fine Line marker they passed out at the Learning Product Expo in Pasadena. It's brown with a fine tip, so I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see the linked drawing, full screen. Squint a little. That might help.
Amazing, isn't it, how you can finally discern where the perspective is wonky, only when it's finally scanned and on your computer screen. And published where the whole world can see it too. Ehhhh, back to drawing board! (Yes, pun intended)

Back to work! Tonight in class I'm planning to have 'em all working very hard on perspective line drawings and little experiments of how to render different materials in marker. Lots and lots of industrial design product drawing today. I predict that I'll be wearing a lot more marker by the time today is finally done. Sigh.

Thanksgiving recap

Intense watercolor pencils

What'd you do for Thanksgiving?
- We cooked, ate, slept and watched a whole lotta football :) The whole time.

Oh, look at the Intense pencils!
- Yeah. So much fun. I figure I need to be a little more methodical in at least understanding the colors and how they react with water. I ordered the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer ones, too. I heard they create really nice washes...

Huh? You ordered more? How many different brands of these watercolor pencils do you need?
- All of them.

Oh. Um.. Right.
- Cheaper than a shoe habit. Or ... you know, worse.

Right. Hmm, talk to yourself much?
- [Furrowing brows] Huh? I'm not going to answer that.

Virtual Cookie Exchange!

After several years of wanting to do a holiday open house and getting sick each year (lying dejectly with the flu on the sofa when I ought to have been baking instead), I've decided to try it the smart and all-inclusive way. This way I can still plan a party, without having to clean; can still bake, but not have to save all the cookies for one big party.

I mean, let’s be real:
Saving several batches of cookies in the freezer around here would be impossible.
[shaking my head]

So, you are invited to the 2007 (Progressive) Virtual Holiday Cookie Exchange!
Where else but TheFridgeDoor, eh?

Create a tasty little treat* to share:
You can bake, draw, paint, sew, draft it.
Whatever. I won’t be picky.
You could even discover it and share a photo of what you’ve found.

Then, send a digital image of what you’ve created to me.

Or, better yet, why don’t you share a few warm holiday memories and plan a Blog Entry to bring to the Cookie Exchange?

In December (let’s say starting around December 10th), we’ll share all the yummy goodies, nice little coffee breaks for the busy, bustling holidays.

I’d be happy to post images, but it’d be even better to share a list of blogs and postings. It’d be a great excuse for everyone to visit each other and share a memory or two.

Go ahead and forward this post to your crafty and artistic friends and have them whip up a batch of creative (digital) yumminess, too!

My guy, reading the artwork, said "Virtual Cookie swap? Sounds disappointingly low-cal..."

Best wishes to you all.

*Tasty little treats like these, and not like these.

Thanks!

With the holidays pretty much here, it's time for us to indulge in rituals of comfort, food, tradition. Every Thanksgiving, I wonder if this is the great American holiday. Forget the Fourth-of-July and corn on the cob, barbeque and burgers and dogs! No matter where you are in the world, I imagine that everyone has at least a teeny craving for roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. At least, this is what I like to think - that we're all sitting down to a national dinner.

There are the quirky traditions, too, like olives, celery sticks filled with cream cheese, the universal method of drawing a turkey (see above), eating too much, turkey soup a few days later, and everything else. There's so much at stake in preparing the food that I've seen all-out mayhem break out in kitchens. It seems more and more that there's more stress and expectation involved in preparing this one meal than Christmas! OMG! And sadly, that stress and craziness has become part of the ritual for a lot of people, too. Sigh.

People do pause to say Thanks, but it really has become just a moment, that lingering pause right before we all start digging into all that food [Lips smacking: Nom nom nom nom!].
Sigh.

There's a lot of gratitude floating around the blogosphere, though. I don't think we need to save it all for just one day. Expressing Thanks is a good thing; it keeps you humble, happy, keeps things in perspective and spreads the light and warmth of a smile on your day.

I am thankful for my man, his warm hands, warm words and warm heart.
I am thankful for notes of courage, friendship, encouragement and support that I get.
I am thankful for the beauty that others capture and create and share so openly, work that inspires.
I am thankful for the chance to teach and to continue to learn.
and I am so thankful that for the better part of my job, I get to draw! Yay!

What are you thankful for?

Now! Let's get to the cooking part of it all!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! xox -w