Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/70 sec, ISO3200 “Homemade Pasta” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Tonight Mariko and her friend made pasta from scratch using our Kitchen-Aid mixer with the pasta attachment. In the photo above, you can see the pasta hanging on an old laundry rack. 😂 The pasta was yummy and had a really nice texture. It was a nice change of pace from the store bought dry pasta, that’s for sure! 🍝
After dinner, I sat down and sketched another small portrait. This time I started with the face shape and then filled in the features using a technique of dividing up a circle and creating rectangles to get the proportions for the eyes. I like how it turned out, but I think the mouth and nose need to be brought up a tiny bit.
One thing I spent a lot of time on was the hair. I tried to give it a little more shape and I think I was successful. But we’ll see if I feel the same way tomorrow when I look at it again with fresh eyes.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “After-dinner Sketch” 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.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Burger Time” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。It’s Friday, so while I am happy about the weekend, I am also sad and worried because there is a hurricane hitting the Texas coast right now. Although here in Austin we will get heavy rain and winds, I have family members who live right where the hurricane made landfall so I am very worried about them… Please be safe everyone!
Tonight, Mariko and Bay went to the movies so Koa and I were left to fend for ourselves as far as dinner was concerned. Of course, we chose In-N-Out. So that’s what my photo of the day is… 🍔 Frankly I’m watching the weather news and not thinking about photos…
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Bowl of Pho” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
This evening we went out for dinner to a nearby Phở restaurant. I ordered the beef brisket phở which was so yummy! The broth was pretty tasty, and that was even before I added the basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, lime, and jalapeños. A touch of Hoisin and hot chili sauce and it was perfect!
When I was growing up, I never had phở. I had eaten lots of instant ramen growing up, and then enjoyed real restaurant ramen in my 20s. I even had a lot of Chinese noodle soups when I lived in Monterey Park. So yummy! Then I moved to Japan and was in ramen heaven. But still, I hadn’t had pho. In fact, I didn’t even know what phở was until we moved to Austin.
The first time I tried it, I didn’t like it. I thought it was bland and not satisfying at all. But after a couple of years, I came to enjoy Vietnamese noodles, especially egg noodle soup dishes. But now, I enjoy a bowl of beef phở most of all. It’s so hearty and warm, and of course, I like it spicy so the jalapeños are essential for me. A stinging tongue is what I love! 🔥
I think that ramen is still my go-to, but phở is a close second on my list of noodle dishes. 😅
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO1600 “Yakisoba Dinner” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Tonight Mariko made a huge portion of yakisoba for the family. Our younger son (13) eats a lot these days, but he’s still so skinny. I think he had maybe 4 servings!
We have a really awesome electric hotplate, which has a number of different pans, including a yakiniku grill. It also has a water pan underneath so that things don’t get too messy. But tonight (and two nights ago) we just used the flat pan. It’s so nice to be able to cook right at the table! 😀
After dinner I sketched a bit while we watched the Dodger game. I wasn’t too happy with the previous night’s drawing. It looks really weird and the proportions and spacing are unnatural looking:
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Ugh” Cedar Park, 2017
The arrows indicate where things should move… but even after I did that digitally, it still looked wrong. Very stiff. So… I decided to look at the sketches of my favorite digital artist Ilya Kuvshinov to see how it should be done.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO3200 “Better” Cedar Park, 2017
I used one of his drawings as a reference to figure out the proportions and spacing, and I think I learned a lot. What is surprising to me is that I would have never drawn the face shape like Ilya does. So this is a real eye-opener! It’s so interesting to see where the curves of the cheek change direction. I need to take note of that. The shape I have been using in my sketches looks like a boring almond. But the face that I copied has a much more interesting shape, doesn’t it?
I also used a ruler to keep things level and centered, and also used a circle stencil to draw the irises. I think it makes a huge difference… especially the circles.
Tomorrow I would like to continue with this sketch and later try to replicate it without looking at a reference drawing and see if I can remember the proportions and face shape.
I’m really enjoying sketching, especially faces. It’s so fun! There’s a lot to take note of and remember when I look at drawings that I like. It’s difficult but really interesting and challenging to see the spatial relationships between different elements.
And learning new things makes me feel pretty good. I’m not sure why that is exactly, but I want to keep doing it.
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.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1600 “Korean Meal” Cedar Park, 2017
Hi! Just a quick post with photos of our Korean-style dinner. It had chicken, cabbage, carrots, mochi, and mushrooms in a sweet and spicy Korean chili paste. We also added cheese, and then later, rice to make a really nice fried rice. It was pretty dang tasty. 😀
Hope you had a nice Saturday!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1250 “Assembling on the Hotplate” Cedar Park, 2017Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Almost Cooked” Cedar Park, 2017Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Cheesy” Cedar Park, 2017
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
