Crayon drawing inspired by the exercise A Child Could Do This
Book Review: One Drawing a Day
I took a wonderful book out of the library called One Drawing a Day. The book, written by artist Veronica Lawlor with the help of other artists, has over 42 drawing exercises, some color, some not, some outside, some for at home. I soon discovered that there was no way I was going to keep up with a drawing every day, so I am trying to content myself with one drawing per week, as the title of my post suggests.
There is an accompanying blog to go with the book, also called One Drawing a Day. However, it seems to be examples of drawings as opposed to more exercises, so if you want the exercises, get the book. I may just need to purchase the book, because there is only so many times I can take it out of the library.
The exercise on the top was done with children’s crayons. It is called a Child Could Do This – you are actually supposed to ask a child for suggestions. I just sorted out some of my daughter’s crayons and used those. Scribble and make shapes a kid would make was part of the suggestion.
Below is a sketch of a family member on the computer:
You are supposed to concentrate on the person you are observing and not spend all your time staring at your paper. I did the sketch with a drawing marker.
This was the very first exercise in the book, observing objects in one’s home:
The flower was actually a design on our sofa cover. What objects do you see?
The Jewish Book Carnival for January is up on the Association of Jewish Libraries blog. Thank you for including my review of Jews in Gotham – it turns out that the series (a three volume set on the history of the Jews of New York) won Jewish Book of the Year.
Lorri reviewed a book by Aharon Appelfeld called Until the Dawn’s Light. Appelfeld is a prolific writer, and his words are always well-chosen. Years ago, I heard him speak in person. His topics are not easy ones.
I posted an interview on Websites for Small Biz about a visit I took to Juice Tank, a co-working space and more in Somerset, New Jersey. I noticed a fair amount of my creative energy is going into creating posts and buzz about my Websites for Small Biz blog.
Anyway, one of my ideas for an upcoming post on that blog is about learning and stirring up creativity via the web. What sites have you found that help stir up your creativity? It can be visual, musical, financial, technical, culinary, social … I’m open to suggestions. In particular, I’m looking for creative exercises. The actual post will be more business-oriented, but as the idea is to increase creativity in the workplace, creative seeds may come from unlikely or unconventional sources. Meanwhile, here is one version of a graphic I did for the post:
Swirly Gigs created in Illustrator – for the sole purpose of putting some swirls on a post
I’m not sure what the above represents – does it need to represent anything? I’ve been practicing swirls in the software program Illustrator. You can also create patterns with Illustrator. Maybe what this design needs is some nice patterned wallpaper behind it. Stay tuned to see if I play around with it more.
Thinking and praying for Michelle as she writes about her breast cancer. Her surgeon said mastectomy, but “the good news is that there probably isn’t any invasive cancer and that this is treatable by removal.”
Ilana-Davita has been reading some scholarly posts – check out this one on Hapax Legomenon (and don’t let the title scare you – it’s not hard to understand).
This sculpted fish with tehina recipe is adapted from a recipe for fish with sesame spread (Samak bi’Tehineh) in Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck. It is both healthy and easy (and I can’t say that about many of the recipes in the book – the more complicated ones are fun to read, but I doubt I will try them). Poopa uses oil to bake her fish, which is traditional in the Syrian Jewish community. I used water to bake mine. Guess what – use a good piece of fish and it will still taste delicious baked or cooked with water (and truthfully, I like it better than heating oil for cooking, anyway). Her recipe also called for larger amounts, and since I was 1) just trying out the recipe and 2) aiming to please mostly my husband and myself, I used a smaller amount of fish and other ingredients.
Ingredients
3 or 4 pieces of flounder fillet
pan for baking the fish (and for displaying the fish – or transfer to a pretty oblong platter)
water to cover the bottom of the pan
lemon juice (optional)
1 Tbsp. tehina
1 black olive – cut to one slice for the eye of the fish
1 strip of red pepper for the mouth
several slices of cucumber for the fish scales
Place fish in baking pan. Cover with water (not a lot – maybe half an inch?). Cover the pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until tender. You can also add lemon juice to the water for flavor before baking. When the fish is tender, take it out and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Mash the fish with a fork and add the tablespoon of tehina. Sculpt the fish into the shape of the fish: add olive for eye, red pepper for mouth and cucumbers for scales. Serve and gobble it up. Multiply amounts for larger crowds.
