Sketchbook - Cincinnati

After Illustrator Lunch last week Christina, Jeb, and I crossed over to the "other side" and sketched Cincinnati from Riverside Drive in Covington (that's Kentucky for all you out-of-towners).  It was a beautiful day and we got right down to work.  Christina sketched the Roebling Suspension Bridge while Jeb and I sketched the Cincinnati skyline (check back soon because I will link to theirs when they post them).

This was not one of my favorite sketches and at one point I considered not posting it, but I think it's important to accept not every one will be a masterpiece (unless, of course, you are Christina).  After I added the watercolor I felt it turned around a bit and I started to even like its "naive" illustrator look.  I have begun to understand that that is the look that comes out of me.  It is what happens when I put a pencil in my hand without the aid of Illustrator or Photoshop and it may not be perfect, but it is apparently "my style".  And I love when I see other people's imperfect styles, so why not love mine? 

Garlic Scapes & Onions

The other day my amazing photographer friend Gina posted a photo on facebook of a bowl of fava beans and a curly cue sprig from the plant.  The curly sprig reminded me of the garlic scapes and onions in the fridge and I thought,  "I have no idea how to cook them, but at least I can photograph them!"

So I pulled them out of the depths of the refrigerator and we had a quick photo shoot out by the shed.  I looooooove their slender, curvy, soft green bodies and the ombre effect of their white heads...too beautiful!  Now, if only cooking-loving hubby were here to concoct some wonderful meal with them.  Alas, he is in Ireland and I am stuck here googling garlic scape recipes.  Something is not right here. 

Oooh, I just found a good link with incredible-looking recipes here.  Will let you know how it goes.

Sketchbook - Lafayette Ave.

My friend Christina and I walked a loop around Clifton starting at Mt. Storm Park and ending on Lafayette Ave. last week.  This house caught our eye and Christina aptly named it the Edward Gorey house.  I love the widow's walk and the shape of the central tower structure.  I also really liked the way the upper dormer windows jut out of the house.

From my exhaustive 60 second google search I think the architecture would be classified as a Victorian Second Empire.  One of the main characteristics is the mansard roof which is means it has 2 slopes on each side, the first slope being barely visible from the ground and the second slope being very steep.  Other characteristics include dormer windows, rounded cornices, brackets beneath the eaves, patterned slate on the roof, wrought iron cresting, and a central tower.  So this house seemed to fit that description.  If anyone out there knows about these things, correct me if I'm wrong.

When I opened this image in Photoshop I liked seeing the close-up details in the image above.  As you can see below my overall composition was a little lacking.  I was originally only going to draw the main house but in the end I added the structure to the right that appeared to be a later addition to the house.  I wished I hadn't but as I always say "that's why they call it a sketchbook".  It's the place to make mistakes and learn from them.

Backyard Bouquet

Every spring one of my favorite things to do is to make a flower arrangement from the peonies and iris in the backyard.  I looooooooooooooove peonies and plan on eventually lining the whole driveway in them.  This year two of my new varieties bloomed well for the first time.  I bought the kind that is just a big poof of yellow anthers in the middle surrounded by a single layer of petals (you can see a pale pink one below just starting to open).  Sometimes when I am working in the yard I catch a glimpse of one and they just stop me in my tracks and I have to stand there marveling at their beauty.  I don't think they last as long as the regular kind but I'm OK with that, as long as I get a day or two before the rains get them.  As I've said in past posts peonies are may favorite flower and I feel the same way about them as Emma Goldman did about her roses.

"I'd rather have peonies on my table than diamonds on my neck."

George's Molasses Bread

George is always tinkering with recipes and changing them and I am always wanting him to make the same thing over and over.  But this time I ended up loving the result of his experiment.  I'm not sure what possessed him to do this, but he added molasses and walnuts to his regular sourdough bread and it is now my absolute favorite bread! George has had his sourdough starter for a couple years but you can make your own easily (King Arthur has a starter recipe here).  This bread is well worth the effort and has a wonderful flavor.  It is especially good toasted with thick globs of cream cheese on top.  If you have any questions leave a comment and I will ask George and get back to you.  Enjoy!

George's Molasses Bread

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour

Mix these together and let sit overnight.  The next day add:

3/4 cup water
1/3 cup Blackstrap molasses
1 Tbsp. salt
enough flour to form dough

Knead dough for a bit.  Let rise until doubled.
Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Shape into a loaf.
Let sit for 30 min to 1 hour
Bake at 375˚ for 10 minutes and then reduce temperature to 350˚ for another 45 minutes or so.

Sketchbook - Xavier University

Last Wednesday Christina and I went up to the 10th floor of Schott Hall at Xavier University and sketched from the rooftop terrace.  It was a great view but both the wind and sun were crazy strong!  After an hour or so we were both sun-burnt and ready to get back to the ground.  I originally planned to include the cool castle details on the closest building but I ran out of room.  (You can see Christina's clever solution to this problem here.) Plus the Xavier "X" got cut off at the bottom.  C'est la vie!  I have to remind myself that that is the beauty of the sketchbook - imperfections and all.

Food Photography Workshop

Last Saturday I attended Gina Weathersby's Food Photography Workshop.  Gina is not only an amazing photographer (you can see her work here, here, and here) but she is also an amazing teacher.  The first half of the workshop Gina covered everything from camera angles and lighting direction to aperture/iso/shutter speed to how to tell your story through food.  We looked at sample work and discussed what makes a good photo.  I absolutely loved listening to her comments on the photos we looked at because for a minute it lets you see the photo through her eyes...what she would have done differently to make it better, how she would have changed just one thing to improve it.  You can learn so much from listening and taking note of the smallest of comments.  There is so substitute for being around someone who is an expert in their field and passionate about what they do.    

The second half of the workshop we all received shooting assignments and were able to ask questions right then and there if we needed help.  It was scary and fun all at once.  My food assignment was to shoot a frittata and its ingredients.  The fun part was choosing between all the amazing props Gina brought.  There were beautiful plates and bowls, linens of every texture and color, cutting boards small and large, silverware, wooden spoons, measuring spoons... I could go on and on but you get the idea.  And this is not even mentioning the food!  Some of the food (including my fritatta) was prepared by eat well celebrations and feasts, but there was also quite an array of fresh ingredients including quail eggs, tomatillos, fresh herbs, edible flowers, rustic breads, olives, and vegetables of all kinds.  Plus the workshop was held at Marti's Floral Design where there were amazing surfaces and textures in addition to large windows that let in perfect light for shooting.   

The photos above show a small sampling of some of the great textures we had to work with.  Those quail eggs were just too awesome for words.  Below was a shot of all of my ingredients.  It was so much fun arranging them...who said not to play with your food?!

I have to add a warning about the above recipe.  I totally made it up just as a sample recipe.  Not to say you couldn't make it, just beware that it is untested and written by someone who makes frozen pizza from a box when George is out-of-town.

One thing I learned after the workshop is that you often do not want to eat the food after a photo shoot.  The food has often laid on the floor, been poked and prodded by many hands, or just plain sat out too long.  Looks yummy but I would not recommend eating it.

I learned so much from this workshop about myself and my photography.  I was nervous to sign up because I felt unsure about my technical skills.  But how else am I going to improve them except by pushing my limits?  And push them it did.  I don't want to feel nervous anymore when someone asks me what my settings are.  I want to be able to answer with confidence "ISO 200, F-stop 4.5, shutter speed, 1/125."  And I want to feel confident in my ability to change the settings as needed.  In her amazingly soft, but somehow stern way, Gina has inspired me to want to learn to shoot manually which has always frightened the bejeezes out of me!  I realize now I have gotten a little too comfortable resting on my aperture-priority-shooting laurels.  So thank you Gina for sharing your knowledge, pushing me out of my comfort zone and providing such a wonderful experience. 

Sketchbook - Fire Station, Hyde Park Square, Cincinnati

My friend Christina and I sketched the fire station in Hyde Park Square a couple weeks ago and I finished mine last week.  I have never been one to keep a sketchbook but it is starting to really grow on me.  I find it super relaxing to work on it and it is a great way to get away from the computer for a bit.  Thank you Christina for getting me outside and sketching!

Redbud Haiku

After I wrote this haiku I couldn't decided whether it needed a question mark at the end or a comma after "who".  In the end I decided against both.  I also wasn't sure if I liked the texture I had on the photo.  So I have now changed it about five times and it may change again.  That is the beauty of the blog.

Snow in Summer

Last week our crabapple was in full bloom and I had the bright idea to do a little photo shoot beneath it. It was the kind of day that has high clouds and you couldn't see the sun, but still bright.  I thought it would be perfect lighting.  George helped me drag the table, chairs and tablecloth down and I picked a few flowers from the yard for a flower arrangement.  It was a beautiful setting and I shot a lot of photos.

After eating lunch with my neighbor I brought it all back inside because it looked like it might rain.  That night when I sat down to look at the photos I was super disappointed.  The sky was all blown out and my white blooms faded right into the sky!  I was so mad after all that effort I had nothing to show.

But then I had a brainstorm.  My friend Jill layers wonderful textures into her photos and had recently shared some of her favorite places to download textures.  I hadn't yet had time to delve into her email but this was the perfect solution to my blown out sky!  I love when things work out perfectly like that.  Thank you Jill for your perfectly timed email!

If you are interested in using textures in your photos (or just love beautiful photography) you have to visit Jill's blog - She Who Carries Camera. She has wonderful photos plus you can participate in Creative License Fridays where everyone downloads the same photo and applies their own techniques.  It is so much fun to see what everyone comes up with.  Also be sure to check out her feathered portraits - love these! 

Homemade Pretzels!

Sometimes my husband's cooking is so amazing the moment I see it I have to run back upstairs to get the camera.  Today was one of those days.  He had just yelled at me to come down and try the pretzels he made and this is what I saw when I came around the corner. I was torn between eating one immediately or documenting their perfectly browned softness.  Let's just say the photo shoot didn't last long.

If you would like the recipe you can find it here on King Arthur's website.  And a special thanks to our friend Amy for introducing us to this delicious recipe.

Sketchbook

Last week my friend Christina and I took a walk and ended up sketching one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood.  I love sketching with Christina because she is a master at drawing architecture and I learn so much from studying her drawings and trying to emulate her.  You can see Christina's sketch on here blog here.  And check out her Italy sketches here and here (not to mention the beautiful Miffy!).

Wood

When we were walking at the Beavercreek Wetlands I kept coming across all these crazy, wonderful trees where the texture was amazing.  I especially love all of the holes, both natural and insect-made.  The beauty of some of these textures boggles my mind.  If you tried to make something like this it would be impossible.  It makes me a little sad that the size of these photos is limited to the blog because they look great blown up really big.  Maybe some day I will print them coffee-table book size...but for now the blog will have to do.

"Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it." - Simone Weil

Beavercreek Wetlands

A couple weeks ago my family took a trip to the Beavercreek wetlands and I had a great time photographing everything from board walks to cattails to jumping boys.  We visited both Siebenthaler fen and the Koogler wetlands and had perfect weather both days.  Both parks have nice boardwalks that form a loop trail that takes about half an hour to 45 minutes to walk.  If you are ever in Beavercreek, Ohio and have some time it is well worth a stop.


It was an especially nice time of year for me to go because there were a million dried pods to photograph.  It was a bit windy the day I took the two photos below and I had to snap quite a few pictures in the hopes that one would be in focus.  Lucky for me the wind gave me a break (which is more than I can say for two little boys!). 

When I noticed this smiley face head (below) on an antenna in the parking lot I snapped a quick photo not thinking too much about it.  But when I saw the similarity between this photo and the photo of the dried gall pod (second photo down in this blog), it made me laugh.  I love when fun, weird things like that happen...it made me feel lucky and charmed all day! 

Hellebores

I had never picked my hellebores for an arrangement until today.  I guess I never thought of them as a great flower for arrangements because their heads are always droopy and you never get to see the inside of the flower.  But boy was I wrong!  I totally love them as cut flowers!  Some of them still droop but they are fairly easy to manipulate and if you really feel the need you could always wire a head or two.

When I went to post these photos I realized what a difference the light makes.  I took the above photo today which was overcast and the below photos yesterday when it was sunny.  I like the joyous feeling the sun gives to those photos but I definitely prefer the no-shadow light of the above photo.  Either way I am super happy to have discovered these as cut flowers because I have a ton of them in my yard and they appear to be spreading without my doing anything to them!   

Buddha Board Sumi-e Fish

A couple weeks ago I visited the studio of my friend Frank Satogata.  I met Frank at his art opening at the Xavier Gallery last month and we quickly discovered we both love sumi-e, or ink wash painting (check out his work here).  Frank offered to loan me his Buddha Board which is a board that you can paint on with water to practice your brushstrokes.  The water then evaporates and you can practice again and again.

After several weeks of sitting on my desk I finally pulled it out because I was going to have lunch with Frank and I needed to return it.  At first my attempts were feeble and hideous (no exaggeration here!).  I was trying to emulate the drawings I had done for Zen Kitty and it was not going well.  I then came across a picture of a fish on the internet and I started to loosen up.  As soon as I let go of trying to draw precisely and slowly, things began to happen.  I started trying to have longer, more fluid strokes and not worry so much about particulars.  After about an hour of playing with it I also realized that I liked the heavy quality that multiple strokes could have as in the fish above.

It is so satisfying to work at something over and over until you start to understand the medium.  I feel like I barely reached the tip of the iceberg but you could spend a lifetime working with these wonderful brushstrokes. It was also such a nice break from the computer. 

"The goal of ink and wash painting is not simply to reproduce the appearance of the subject, but to capture its soul. To paint a horse, the ink wash painting artist must understand its temperament better than its muscles and bones. To paint a flower, there is no need to perfectly match its petals and colors, but it is essential to convey its liveliness and fragrance." - Wikipedia

At the end of an hour I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to buy me one of these Buddha Boards."  Little did I know my wish would come true quicker than I expected.  When I left the room this last image was starting to evaporate and I assumed when I got home it would be gone.  However when I got home I was surprised to find a faint image on the Buddha Board of this fish.  I rinsed it off in the shower and let it dry but it was still there.  I then realized that I had switched to using an old brush of mine toward the end because I wanted a bigger brush and that brush must have had old ink residue still in it.  Lesson  learned!  Always clean your brushes thoroughly! And Frank, your new Buddha Board just arrived and I will be bringing it over shortly.