daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
❤️ tonight’s dinner.
I hope you had a good day. Hoping things get better for Houston and south Texas. Donate if you can.
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Our younger son requested takoyaki for dinner, so we got out the electric takoyaki pan and cooked up a few batches. If you don’t know what takoyaki is, it’s a ball of batter, filled with octopus and other small ingredients (we also add cheese) and cooked into what looks like a donut hole. It’s then topped with a sweet sauce, Japanese mayo, green seaweed flakes, and dried bonito flakes. It’s a popular dish in Japan, and originated in Osaka. Since Mariko is from Osaka, I think she’s got natural talent in making Takoyaki! 😀
I received a nice little goodie in the mail today: a Kuru Toga mechanical pencil. The special thing about this pencil is that it has a mechanism which will rotate the lead slightly each time you lift the pencil from the paper, thus ensuring the lead is always sharp, or at least has a consistent angle. I tried it out for a little while, and it seems to work!
My Amazon order actually came from Japan, so it took a couple weeks, but it was only around $4.50 US, with free shipping! I excitedly showed Mariko the pencil, but she was unimpressed… letting me know that Bay has had a Kuru Toga for a few years already. 🙄
Later this evening, I scanned in last night’s sketch and did my usual edit in Photoshop. Basically, I cut and paste the nose, mouth, and eyes, then adjust the position, size, and angle of each to what feels right to me. I can use that information on my next drawing so that I can get closer to my ideal sketch. And even though I have only started using this technique, I think it helps! For this latest sketch, I didn’t have to edit too much… just a pixel here and there, and resizing the eye on the left a little. The top image is the before, and the bottom is the edit. Can you see the difference?
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 Monday!
またね～
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.
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 weekend!
おやすみ
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…
おやすみ
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. 😅
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
