A Monday

"August 7 Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
“August 7 Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going? Did you survive another Monday? 😀

I don’t have much to say tonight. Actually, I do want to write about my frustrations with setting up our Windows network, but I’ll save that for another time. I’m pretty tired and I want to read before I fall asleep.

But I did want to share another drawing I did a few minutes ago. I think I should keep drawing faces from straight on for a while so I can memorize the proportions I like. I like tonight’s drawing, but it might be a little long? I don’t know. Anyways, I am learning to erase quickly instead of trying to draw more to fix mistakes. And I am getting better at controlling the pencil. Sounds funny to say that, but I can feel that I am slowly gaining a little more skill.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

Ok, enough for tonight. See you tomorrow!

おやすみ

Trees, and a Face

"Shading Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
“Shading Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Good evening!

Today I practiced a bit with my watercolors. As you can see from these photos, it was all about trees! 🌲🌳 I watched a couple Youtube tutorials on adding dark shading to wet areas of the painting and decided to give it a go. The photo above is my second sketch after I watched the tutorial, and the photo below is before I watched the video. I think the photo below is pretty fun, but the one above is a little more tree-like. I really need to work on the trunks, though!

For the color in the top painting, I used mainly Sap Green for the lighter color, then a mix of Sap Green and Pthalo Green for the dark color.

"Lollipop Trees" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
“Lollipop Trees” Cedar Park, 2017

Later in the evening I practiced drawing a face, which I find is quite a challenge. I may have mentioned that one of the big problems I have is getting the facial feature more or less symmetrical. I watched another tutorial (isn’t Youtube amazingly useful?) and it explained a good way to divide up the face so that it is easier to match the size of the eyes. I think it helped my drawing quite a bit!

The technique of dividing up geometric shapes is easy to follow, but difficult for me to memorize, so more practice is needed. And of course, this is just a straight ahead angle. I think a three-quarter angle will be a lot more challenging!

Onward and upward!

"Face Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
“Face Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Sunday!

またね~

Internet up, a New Color, and More Dorama

"Current Palette" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO320
“Current Palette” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Well, this morning was a busy one, in which I (with the help of a friend) figured out how to get the new ISP service to work concurrently with our existing television service. Basically, it involved putting the new router on its own cable circuit and keeping it separate from the television. So, we are up and running with a super-fast and strong connection! Yay!

With that solved, I took Bay to Jerry’s Artarama to buy a new brush and palette knife. The store was having a big sale, so I took advantage and bought a new tube of watercolor for myself. The new Pthalo Green rounds out my palette, which you can see in the photo at the top of this post. I think it will be useful to create dark shadows in trees. 🌳

On the way home, we stopped by Fry’s to buy a USB Wi-fi adapter, then stopped at the hardware store to pick up a flapper to fix the toilet, and finally returned home to finish setting up the network. And fix the toilet. 😀

And to finish the day, I had a glass of wine and watched a couple more episodes of Tsubaki Stationery Store. I really like it.

"Tsubaki Stationery Store" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
“Tsubaki Stationery Store” Cedar Park, 2017

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみ

Internet Fail

"Relax Cat" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO640
“Relax Cat” Cedar Park, 2017

Switching our ISP tonight. The installation technician arrived 3 hours late at 9pm, left at midnight after unsuccessfully providing us with Internet without messing up our existing television service… Angry! Told him to put it back the way it was.

Anyways, here’s cat photo. Everything’s gonna be ok. 🐱

Beer, Gumbo, and Dorama

"Refreshing" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
“Refreshing” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This evening was filled with tasty treats. Actually, just two but they were excellent. First, Mariko surprised me with the Yebisu beer which she had brought back in her suitcase all the way from Japan. So cold and refreshing! ❤️🍺

Next up, we made a big pot of gumbo for dinner. Mariko did most of the work, while I just literally stirred the pot. And of course, I am on dish duty, which I am happy to do! It’s a small price to pay for getting to eat like a king. 😊

"Gumbo" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
“Gumbo” Cedar Park, 2017

After dinner, I watched a couple of Japanese tv shows. The first was “Kaettekita Ie Uru Onna / 帰ってきた家売るオンナ”, which is a 1.5 hour special follow-up to the 2016 series, “Iie Uru Onna / 家売るオンナ”. I really enjoyed the original series (Kitagawa Keiko is a favorite of mine) so was happy to see the continuation of the story. There wasn’t anything groundbreaking… was just like a long episode. But it was fun nonetheless.

And I just started watching “Tsubaki Stationery Store / ツバキ文具店”. It’s about a young woman who takes over the family store after her grandmother’s death. The main business of the shop is ghostwriting letters for people. I’m only one episode in, but so far it’s very interesting. Can’t wait to watch the rest of the series.

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

おやすみ