Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO1250 “Oyakodon” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
I feel like I must have about a dozen of these posts… a photo of oyakodon and a short paragraph about it being my favorite food. So this time, I’ll just say that we had oyakodon tonight because Mariko was going out with her friend for fondue and this is a super quick prep meal. Basically, she cooked the chicken, broth, and onion in a skillet, then left it for me to finish preparing when the kids came home. That just involved adding five eggs and some green onion to the skillet and cooking it all up. Finally, I served it over rice, put some nori on top, and voila – dinner is served! 😄
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO2000 “Stars Above Us” Cedar Park, 2018
Tonight’s sketch is inspired by a song I love – “Stars Above Us” by St. Etienne. Often when I am driving and listening to music, I think to myself I should draw something from the song. So this is the first attempt at that idea.
Stars above us, cars below us
Out on the rooftop, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Nothing can touch us, baby
Just had to get out of there
I’m tired of all of those places
Up here is out of sight
Outside with the breeze on our faces
Let’s go up the stairway
My band doing it their way
Our sound’s ruling all the airwaves
Butterflies taking flight
Stars above us, cars below us
Out on the rooftop, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Nothing can touch us, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Out on the rooftop, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Nothing can touch us, baby
Sun sets over the city
Won’t you come and catch it with me?
Follow me, right up the stairway
Let’s have some fun tonight
Stars above us, cars below us
Out on the rooftop, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Nothing can touch us, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Out on the rooftop, baby
Stars above us, cars below us
Nothing can touch us, baby
Out on the rooftop, out on the rooftop
Stars above us
Out on the rooftop
Stars above us
Out on the rooftop
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Binder Ingredients” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
So this weekend I have gotten closer to figuring out the type of binder solution that will work for me. Last year I really got into my Traveler’s Company Passport-size Notebook, but I’ve found that it’s just too small for me. I think the regular size Traveler’s Notebook is also a bit too narrow. The notebook inserts don’t lie flat enough for me to write or draw in comfortably.
Those shortcomings led me to the A5 Binder. First of all, the A5 size is perfect for my sketching and note-taking. I have a bunch of A5-sized notebooks, so I know that these aren’t too small, but I also know that A4 or letter-sized is just too big for me. It would take a lot of writing/drawing to fill one page so that would keep me from starting on a new page. Also, the A5 size binder fits nicely into my messenger bag.
Secondly, the 20-ring binder is good because I can use loose-leaf paper. The advantage of this is that the paper lays flat for easy writing/drawing, or I can even take the paper out of the binder and work on it by itself, then add it back into the binder. And the fact that I can add/remove/reorder pages gives me a lot of freedom!
I actually have a bunch of A5 bound notebooks but I don’t really use them. The reason is that I feel like once I start a new notebook, I have to finish it before moving on to the next one, and also I don’t want to mess up a page and thus “ruin” the whole notebook. I know it’s kind of dumb, but still, it’s holding me back. I have about 10 notebooks sitting on the shelf! But with the loose-leaf paper, that burden is lifted. If I mess up a page, I just throw it away, and no one (me) will ever know it existed.
Another advantage of the binder is that I can mix and match different kinds of paper. For instance, I have graph paper, blank paper, and lined paper all in the single binder. The only things that I wish I had were dot-grid pages and watercolor pages. But the good news is that I should have these two fixed soon, though, because I am planning on printing dot grids on some of my plain paper, and in order to add watercolor pages, I’ve ordered a 20-hole punch. That should give me the freedom to add not only watercolor paper but pretty much any kind of paper (after trimming to A5 size).
One thing I’ve been doing is putting my sketches into the binder. Since I am using drawing paper from my sketchbook, I’ve just been cutting those out and taping them onto blank pages using washi tape. To make a little cleaner, I purchased a Tombow Adhesive Tape tool. But I think since I will have the 20-hole punch soon, it might be easier just to trim the sketchbook page and then hole-punch it.
Lastly, I purchased a clear pen case that also goes into the binder. I’ll probably keep some cash, Instax photos, or other fun stuff in there.
If you already use a loose-leaf type planner or binder, all this might be old hat to you. But for me, I am loving my new “discovery”. It’s great!
So that’s the current state of my everyday notebook/binder. I’m not sure what to do with the Traveler’s Notebook yet, but I guess I’ll figure out an alternate use for it.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Triptych” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
I bought some new paper for my notebook today. It’s a 100-sheet pack of Maruman A5 Plain Paper which I planned to use as a base for taping sketches on top of. But to my pleasant surprise, the smooth, white paper is really nice to sketch on. It erases well (VERY important for me) and it takes ink nicely too! I’m very happy with it. 😄
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Drawing Hands” Cedar Park, 2018
こんにちは！How’s it going?
I still have a lot to learn about drawing, but one thing I’ve never been decent at depicting are hands. In fact, I avoid them whenever I can! So last night I decided to tackle the problem and devoted a bit of time watching some videos and practicing and I think I made a lot of improvement. Which is probably not a huge deal because my previous drawings of hands were horrendous. 😝 But it was a lot of fun practicing, and so satisfying to actually get better. My first attempts were pretty bad (and honestly a bit discouraging), but persistence pays off, and by the end of the hour or so, the claws started to look like human hands.
Speaking about improvement, I think I’ve gotten a lot better about breaking through frustration, discouragement, and setbacks when learning new things. For instance, in my ukulele practice, I don’t have a lot of natural talent, nor rhythm, but sticking with it has paid off for me. I’m still not great, but there is a definite improvement and I have a lot more fun practicing knowing that every minute I play is not wasted – it’s like taking small steps on the long journey of improvement.
I have a quote written down by an artist that goes something like, “No line drawn is ever wasted.” I love that! Even a sketchbook page with bad drawings is valuable. You don’t even need to keep those drawings (declutter those!). Just the fact that you made the
These are the two videos I watched. The bottom video is the one I watched first, but the top video is the one I this is is better to begin with (at least for me). It’s also super funny and relatable. The bottom video is great in that it teaches about proportion and the digits Please take a look!
またね～
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