Tag Archives: food sketching

Sanguine Tomatoes

What do you do with a bag of many different types of markers, all in the same palette? Draw food, of course.

Well, I draw the food anyway. I’d been loving the Sailor Shikiori markers for food sketching — those gorgeous watery effects! But I’d also just finished building the same Travel Sketching palette six ways. Or eight. (What? I got obsessed.)

I knew the palette worked for landscapes and cityscapes. But food? I had to find out.

A sketchbook spread covering Tuesday 5 May through Friday 8 May 2026, showing four days of illustrated food diary entries. Each day's meals are painted as small loose watercolor sketches of bowls and plates in a limited warm palette, with handwritten meal names, costs, calories, and macros. Media noted include Goldfinbar Aqua Dual Brush Markers.
Food sketches in Shikiori and Goldfaber Aqua Dual Brush Markers, 5–8 May 2026

Shikiori markers for the first few days as I had been doing previously, then the Goldfaber Aqua Dual Brush Markers, then the Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Markers, and finally the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens — my first time ever using those in color.

wo side-by-side illustrated food diary pages showing meals from Saturday 9 May and Sunday 10 May 2026, painted in a limited color palette using Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Markers. Each day shows loose watercolor sketches of meals arranged on yellow plates and bowls, including a cupcake, salad, and various dishes, rendered in soft washes of yellow, green, brown, blue and muted red.
Ink on Paper — Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Markers, food diary, 9–10 May 2026

Not too bad, actually! The water-based markers end up more similar than different — the palette mostly wins. Except those tomatoes. You have to think about it to realize they’re tomatoes, because the sanguine is just not red enough. Every single person who looked at my sketchbook squinted at them. Sorry, tomatoes. You deserved better.

A sketchbook spread covering Saturday 9 May through Tuesday 12 May 2026, showing four more days of illustrated food diary entries in a limited watercolor palette. Meals are painted as small loose sketches of bowls and plates with handwritten annotations. A journal entry on the right notes creating the Sketchbook Index and starting Lesson 1 of the Travel Sketching course. Media noted include Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Markers and Faber-Castell Fine Brush Pen.
Food Sketches in Albrect Dürer Watercolor Markers, and Pitt Artist Brush Pens, 9–12 May 2026

In other news — I started indexing all my sketchbook pages. Can you imagine? A searchable index so I can find when I last sketched a particular subject, or when I sampled a paint color and then never used it again. Oh yes.

April, in Dinners

Dinners Only

The last food diary post took me through April 6th. Then April happened.

It wasn’t a bad month exactly, but it was a rocky one with symptoms flaring, energy unreliable, the kind of month where keeping up with a daily sketchbook practice just wasn’t in the cards. I kept eating dinner. I just wasn’t drawing it.

So yesterday I sat down with my phone, pulled up my photos, and drew twenty-six days of dinners in one go. Two and a half hours with the Shikiori markers, then another fifty minutes going back over everything with water to activate the color. I do love the blooms that activating watercolor markers can generate! Five pages. April 7th through May 3rd, all in one long, slightly meditative catch-up session.

Three days of food diary sketches in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook, drawn in Shikiori markers with watercolor activation. April 7 shows BBQ chips, peanut butter cups, and quesadillas. April 8 shows more chips,sedanini with spinach and a quesadilla with enchilada sauce. April 9 shows a flying avocado, a fruit cup, and lemon cake.
April 7–9, 2026 — Food Diary catch-up — Stillman & Birn Delta

I’ve done dinners-only before, back in 2022, but not since. The logic is the same now as it was then: breakfast and lunch don’t vary enough to sketch, and if something in my diet is causing a flare, it’s almost certainly lurking in dinner. The food diary is part creative practice, part detective work.

Drawing from photos all at once gave the pages a consistency I don’t usually get from in-the-moment sketching. Same hand, same markers, same energy — everything has a kind of visual unity that I actually like. It’s a different flow from the day-by-day record, but it’s still a record.

Five days of food diary sketches in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook, drawn in Shikiori markers with watercolor activation. April 10 shows banana, quesadilla, and a Ciao sparkling water. April 11 shows quesadilla with enchilada sauce. April 12 shows a glow bowl, lemon cake, and lemonade. April 13 shows applewood cheddar with crackers and red bean chili. April 14 shows cherry tomatoes, chocolate cookies, and cheddar crackers with vegan bacon.
April 10–14, 2026 — Food Diary catch-up — Stillman & Birn Delta

Highlights and lowlights, in no particular order.

April 9th has a flying avocado, a fruit cup, and lemon cake, and I’m pleased with how cheerful it came out. April 12th’s glow bowl is one of the better-looking plates in the whole run. The cheesy lemon spaghetti on April 18th was delicious and the sketch knows it.

Six days of food diary sketches in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook, drawn in Shikiori markers with watercolor activation. Dates run April 15 through April 20, with meals including a Leafside creamy mushroom bowl, cherry tomatoes, a peanut butter sandwich cookie plate, cheesy lemon spaghetti, and carrot cake. A hand-lettered box reading DINNERS ONLY appears on the right-hand page.
April 15–20, 2026 — Food Diary catch-up — Stillman & Birn Delta

The DINNERS ONLY box that appears mid-April — I lettered it right there on the page as a label to remind myself I did still eat lunches! It has a slightly resigned, slightly determined energy that I feel captures the month accurately.

Seven days of food diary sketches in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook, drawn in Shikiori markers with watercolor activation. Dates run April 21 through April 27, with meals including Greek bowtie pasta with cheese, a small bowl of Giggles candy, cherry tomatoes, quesadillas with salsa, dolmas with tomatoes and carrots, Mexican wedding cookies, spaghetti marinara, and carrot cake with a glow bowl.
April 21–27, 2026 — Food Diary catch-up — Stillman & Birn Delta

And then there’s the quesadilla. It shows up nine times. Nine. Quesadilla with enchilada sauce, quesadilla with salsa, quesadilla solo, quesadilla as a supporting player. It has practically become a character in this sketchbook. My Whoop has been giving me pointed looks about it. I asked about my poor sleep, and the theory offered is that a high fat and high carb dinner combination might be doing my sleep no favors. I did not buy tortillas on my last shopping trip. Let’s test this theory and see what happens. (But what will I eat on high brain fog, low energy days?)

Seven days of food diary sketches in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook, drawn in Shikiori markers with watercolor activation. Dates run April 28 through May 3, with meals including quesadillas with salsa, avocado, cherry chocolate walnut dessert, hummus with dolmas and rice stackers, hemp cheese and bean burgers, crackers with vegan bacon and tomatoes, carrot cake with a glow bowl, and spaghetti marinara.
April 28–May 3, 2026 — Food Diary catch-up — Stillman & Birn Delta

This also concludes the small Delta Sketchbook that is my 29th sketchbook and my 6th food volume.

The featured image up top is from the April 21st spread — Greek bowtie pasta, and a little bowl of Giggles (allergen-friendly candy, think Skittles) with those bright confetti dot colors. It’s one of my favorites from the whole batch. Twenty-six dinners, one sitting, five pages. The record exists. On to May. Without my go to quesadillas!

Food in Shikiori

Food in Shikiori

I did not plan to start another food sketchbook so soon. I said at the end of the last one that I’d be folding food sketching into my regular daily sketchbook going forward. But then I didn’t. Ha! I grabbed this Delta thinking it has fewer pages, and would be great for March. Also, tracking my allergens is genuinely easier in a dedicated book, and here we are. Food Sketchbook No. 6.

This one is a Stillman & Birn Delta, softcover, 5.5 × 3.5 inches, 270gsm cold press in ivory. I’ve tried the Delta paper before, one year ago exactly! I did not love it for watercolor. However, for ink it’s been great. Very wet ink washes with loads of water, it doesn’t even buckle!

I book started on March 9th, intending to keep going through the month. But then those allergens hit, and I only got two days done. Both are done in Shikiori markers, because I was thinking markers would be fast and I was worried about not keeping up.

Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Monday 9 March 2026. Individual food portraits include dark chocolate, trail mix, a large green plate of yellow pasta with vegetables, cherry tomatoes on the vine, and a bean burger on a green plate. Handwritten food names, costs, and nutrition data fill the margins. Sailor Shikiori markers.
Monday 9 March 2026 — Food Diary in Sailor Shikiori markers
Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Tuesday 10 March 2026. On the left, pumpkin granola in a red bowl, dark chocolate, a green oval, and a large plate of red lentil sedanini with green beans in cheesy buffalo sauce. On the right, spaghetti marinara with a bean burger, and a large trail mix bowl in a red-rimmed dish. Handwritten food labels and a nutrition and cost summary box. Sailor Shikiori markers.spaghetti marinara with a bean burger, and a large trail mix bowl in a red-rimmed dish.
Tuesday 10 March 2026 Food diary in Sailor Shikiori markers

These are Sailor Shikiori markers. Japanese brush markers that take water beautifully. I do love that watery look. I had used Faber-Castell watercolor markers for food a few years ago and loved how they looked. I had these close by, so they were the obvious choice when I started this new book, hoping using marker would be a fast and easy method.

I got two days in. Once almost three weeks has passed, I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch-up, so I decided to jump in with my birthday. But I also knew I needed a fast method this busy week. One of my favorite sketches previously was a monochrome silhouette style, but I couldn’t remember if I’d done it in the 023 ink, or the Doyou ink. Obviously this means I had to both this week!

A fast way to record, and then the fun comes in the lovely ink washes as the dark lines are diluted.

Ink wash food diary spread on a double page, Monday 30 March 2026. Food items rendered as purple silhouettes along a horizon line, with "Happy Birthday" lettered in the center. Handwritten food names and costs below, including dark chocolate, Mexican wedding cookies, sparkling water, red lentil pasta bowl, glow bowl, lemonade, lemon olive oil cake, and baby brie peanut butter cups. Sailor 023 Shikiori marker.
Monday 30 March 2026 Food Diary in Shikiori marker 023.
Ink wash food diary spread on a double page, Tuesday 31 March 2026. Food items rendered as warm reddish-brown silhouettes along a horizon line, including dark chocolate, Biggles, red lentil pasta bowl, lemonade, lemon cake, poke bowl, and cherry tomatoes. Handwritten food names and costs below. Sailor Doyou Shikiori marker.
Tuesday 31 March 2026 Food Diary in Shikiori marker Doyou.

The 023 has the deeper purple undertones, while the Doyou leans toward the browns. Both work beautifully in the silhouette format, and the way the marker ink blooms into the wet wash below is very much what I was going for here.

Ink wash food diary spread on a double page, Wednesday 1 April 2026. Food items rendered as near-black silhouettes against a deep blue-violet pooling wash below, including dark chocolate, sparkling water, red lentil pasta bowl, sparkling water, rice with carrots and pulled pork teriyaki, and sparkling water. Handwritten food names and costs. Diamine Good Tidings ink.
Wednesday 1 April 2026 Food Diary in Diamine Good Tidings Ink wash.

I wanted to keep going with the black inks, and I had the Diamine Good Tidings nearby. I really need to write the inks higher on the page, because doing it near the margin, they get cut off when I scan! I loved the color bleed on this ink so much!

I remembered the Udemy course on fountain pen ink art by Nick Stewart that I’d dabbled with back in January — specifically his chromatography exercises, which are all about how inks separate and bloom when water is introduced. That’s exactly what was happening in these food spreads. One of the inks he uses in that course is Noodler’s Rome Burning, so I knew what ink I was going to do next!

Ink wash food diary spread on a double page, Thursday 2 April 2026. Food items rendered as warm golden-brown silhouettes along a horizon line, with a yellow ink wash below. Items include dark chocolate, sparkling water, red lentil pasta bowl, Ciao, poke bowl, summer strawberry water, lemon cake, and trail mix. A bright yellow element appears on the right side. Handwritten food names and costs. Noodler's Rome Burning ink.
Thursday 2 April 2026 Food Diary in Noodler’s Rome Burning Ink wash
Ink wash food diary spread on a double page, Friday 3 April 2026. Food items rendered as deep plum-grey silhouettes along a horizon line, with a soft blue-violet blooming wash below. Items include dark chocolate, red lentil pasta bowl, Ciao, sparkling water, quesadilla with enchilada sauce, sparkling water, trail mix, and sparkling water. Handwritten food names and costs. Robert Oster Graphite ink.
Friday 3 April 2026 Food Diary in Robert Oster Graphite Ink wash

The Robert Oster Graphite is also used in Nick Stewart’s course, and I can see why! Look at those colors! Deep plum-to-grey shift with the blue bloom and pink undertones in the wash is doing a lot of atmospheric work for what is essentially a record of sparkling water and a quesadilla.

From Shikiori markers to fountain pen inks. Now I’m energized to get back to the exercises in that Udemy course, and see what these inks can do!

Why Page Design Makes All the Difference (Even for a Food Diary)

If you’ve been following the Illustrated Food Diary for a while, you know the premise is pretty simple: I sketch what I eat, sometimes with calories, carbs, and cost noted alongside. Same subject, every single day. Plates, bowls, bottles of sparkling water, the occasional bag of chips.

It could get very repetitive very fast. And honestly, without some intentional page design, it does.

I’ve been thinking about page design since taking Liz Steel’s Sketching Now course — Sketchbook Design — and with Sketchbook Volume 24 (my 5th food sketchbook,) I got serious about actually applying it to the food diary. Near the back of the book I filled a few pages with wireframe sketches: little thumbnail layouts exploring different ways to organise a page. What Liz called recipe book in the Sketchbook Design class. Some ideas came from Liz, some from scrapbooking, and some I just made up. The note I wrote on the title spread still holds: design makes it look so much better.

Watercolour title page in purple reading "Page Design" with handwritten notes citing Liz Steel, scrapbooking, and personal ideas as sources, beside a page of small coloured thumbnail layout sketches for food diary pages
Page Design — sources and first thumbnails, Vol. 024
Two pages of hand-drawn wireframe thumbnail sketches showing named food diary page layout concepts including Modular Stack, Overlapping Flow, Spiral, Deconstructed Journal, Blueprint Grid, and Map, with watercolour colour studies
Wireframe page design layout concepts.
Two pages of food diary layout wireframe thumbnails in various colour combinations including pink, blue, orange, purple, teal and green, with handwritten notes reading "Food Diary Page Design from Liz Steel 2008" and Epsilon sketchbook specifications.
Wireframe page design layouts for S&B Epsilon 5.5 x 3.5-inch Landscape sketchbook.

Here’s what I landed on as my toolkit.

Colour blocking is my favourite for making plates really pop. A solid band of colour behind the food — yellow, teal, pink — does something almost magical: suddenly the sketches read as a designed page rather than a collection of doodles.

Illustrated food diary page for Saturday 5 July 2025 using a yellow colour block band, with watercolour sketches of cereal, Greek wraps, and kettle chips, annotated with calories and costs
Saturday 5 July — Food Sketch page with yellow colour block

The baseline layout — everything lined up along a common ground line — gives a page a clean, almost theatrical feel, like the food is on a little stage. The variety of shapes along that line (round bowls, wedges of quesadilla, tall bottles) creates a natural rhythm without any extra effort.

Illustrated food diary page for Monday 7 July 2025 with all food items lined up along a common baseline, including dark chocolate, red lentil pasta, watermelon, quesadillas, and sparkling water, annotated with calories and costs.
Monday 7 July — Food Sketch page with baseline layout.

Column dividers are great when you have a lot of items and want to create clear sections without things feeling cluttered. Vertical bands separate the day into distinct moments, and it ends up reading almost like a magazine layout.

Illustrated food diary page for Saturday 12 July 2025 using green vertical column dividers to separate meals, with watercolour sketches of dark chocolate, red lentil pasta pizza, cherries, and a Greek-style mezze plate
Saturday 12 July — Food Sketch page with column dividers.

And then there’s direct watercolour with a simple frame — no planning, just paint. This is what I reach for on a busy day, or when I’m catching up after falling behind. It’s the fastest approach, and even a simple frame lifts a page considerably. That Wednesday the 16th spread — done entirely in one deep plum — is a good reminder that design doesn’t have to mean colour variety. Monochrome with a strong layout is its own kind of striking.

Illustrated food diary page for Wednesday 16 July 2025 entirely in deep plum monochrome watercolor marker, showing a full day of meals arranged along a baseline across a two-page spread.
Wednesday 16 July — Food Sketch Page in Watercolor Marker, monochrome.

Here are a couple of recent examples from the current volume. Wednesday 4 March is a good fast-day page — loose, direct, just a simple wavy frame holding everything together.

Loose watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Wednesday 4 March 2026. On the left page, dark mushroom shapes and a teal oval sit beside a large yellow pasta bowl rendered in fluid, gestural brushwork. On the right, a loosely painted brown shape sits centrally, with scattered sketches of cherry tomatoes on the vine, green cucumbers, a bean burger with ketchup, a bowl of strawberries, and more strawberries rendered in bright red. Handwritten food labels throughout.
Wednesday 4 March 2026 — Food sketch page in direct watercolour, simple frame

Thursday 5 March captures a dining out day — the teal colour block gives it just enough structure to feel intentional, and it nicely documents that mix of restaurant and home food in one spread.

Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Thursday 5 March 2026, with a bright turquoise border wash across both pages. On the left, a dark chocolate piece and a blue oval sit beside a yellow pasta bowl on a turquoise plate. On the right, two golden olive oil lemon cakes sit beside a grey bowl with a colorful glow bowl of vegetables and a plate of bright orange sweet potato fries. Food names are handwritten on both pages.
Thursday 5 March 2026 — Food Sketch page with teal frame including a dining out dinner.

The wireframe sketches aren’t precious — they’re just a menu I made for myself, so that when I sit down with the book I’m not starting from zero. I can glance at them and think colour block day or baseline day and just get on with it. Variety of layouts keeps it interesting for me, and on days when I just can’t, a simple frame and loose direct watercolour is still a page worth keeping.

If you want the full backstory on how I first approached page design recipes for this sketchbook size, I wrote about it back in Food Sketches Week 27.

You can see all posts of this food sketchbook volume 24 here. 

End of a Series (and a lot of Red Lentil Pasta)

The End of a Series (and a Lot of Red Lentil Pasta)

It’s March, and I’m sketching food again. If you’ve been following along, you might notice that February and March seem to have a strange gravitational pull for sketching food! My first food sketchbook started 1 February 2020, my second picked up again 1 February 2021, and here I am in 2026, wrapping up my fifth. I genuinely did not plan that.

This post covers March 1–8, the final eight days in this little sketchbook — Volume 24 overall, Food Sketchbook No. 5. It’s a 3.5×5.5 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon, softcover, 150gsm smooth white paper. I’ve used a few different Stillman & Birn papers across the five food sketchbooks, and this one has been a pleasant surprise — it handles ink beautifully, and the watercolor behaves better than you’d expect from a smooth paper. It allows for harder, crisper marks, which suits food sketching well.

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Sunday 1 March 2026. Plates of food are arranged along a bold dark horizontal band across both pages, including a green plate of yellow pasta with orange and green vegetables, a small dark bowl, a purple shape, and a large oval plate with colorful vegetables. Handwritten notes on the left list foods, prices, and nutrition data.
Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Monday 2 March 2026. Four individual food portraits are arranged in a grid of framed panels across the top of both pages, showing dark chocolate, a green plate of red lentil pasta with roasted tomatoes, a plate of rice cakes with cheese and jam, and a blue plate with a bean burger and pickles. A framed panel at the bottom left shows the daily total cost and nutrition data.

These eight pages are a bit of a mixed bag stylistically, and I’ll be honest about why: I got behind and had to catch up. Six of the eight are loose, direct watercolor without nutritional data, because that’s simply much faster to do. The two more structured pages — the panoramic spread on Sunday March 1st, and the grid of four individual food portraits on Monday the 2nd — are closer to what I’d do if I had unlimited time. The Monday page even has the full daily cost and nutrition totals at the bottom, which is the whole point of the exercise, really.

One ounce of dark chocolate chips is a must to start the day, of course. I do have a shocking amount of the red lentil sedanini every week, month, year. What can I say, it’s easier on the glucose hits, and carries a nut cheese sauce well. Food allergies, so I’m gluten free and vegan as much as possible. And let’s face it, scanning through sketches is far easier when finding a culprit!

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Tuesday 3 March 2026, with a corrected date visible. A large bordered rectangle frames both pages. On the left, a small dark bowl of chocolate and a blue circle sit beside a large yellow pasta bowl on a green plate. On the right, small sketches of coconut date bars sit beside two more green plates — one with red lentil spaghetti marinara and one with trail mix. Food labels are handwritten throughout.
Loose watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Wednesday 4 March 2026. On the left page, dark chocolate shapes and a teal oval sit beside a large yellow pasta bowl rendered in fluid, gestural brushwork. On the right, a loosely painted My Bacon sits centrally, with scattered sketches of cherry tomatoes on the vine, green cucumbers, a bean burger with ketchup, a bowl of strawberries, and more strawberries rendered in bright red. Handwritten food labels throughout.
Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Thursday 5 March 2026, with a bright turquoise border wash across both pages. On the left, a dark chocolate piece and a blue oval sit beside a yellow pasta bowl on a turquoise plate. On the right, two golden olive oil lemon cakes sit beside a grey bowl with a colorful glow bowl of vegetables and a plate of bright orange sweet potato fries. Food names are handwritten on both pages.

The highlight of the week was Thursday, when I ate out at Flower Child with a friend who was heading off on vacation. The olive oil lemon cake on that page was hers — I did not eat two desserts, though I won’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind. The glow bowl and sweet potato fries were very good.

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Friday 6 March 2026, with a soft purple border wash. On the left page, dark chocolate pieces and blue-purple ovals sit beside a bold yellow and orange pasta bowl. On the right, a striking cluster of deep red cherry tomatoes on the vine dominates the center, with a plate of loosely painted orange red lentil spaghetti marinara beside it. Food names are handwritten below each item.
Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Saturday 7 March 2026, with a blue border. A row of food items stretches across both pages: dark chocolate and a navy oval on the far left, followed by a green bowl of yellow pasta, a red-rimmed bowl of trail mix, a small dark bowl of chocolate, a sketch of tomatoes on the vine with strips of vegan bacon, and a red-rimmed plate with a bean burger and dill pickles. Food labels are handwritten above each item, with the date written at the bottom left.

Saturday brought a treat of a different kind: I’ve recently discovered My Bacon, a vegan bacon made from mycelium (soy-free, wheat-free, and genuinely delicious), and it shows up twice this week. Highly recommend if you’re navigating similar dietary constraints.

Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Sunday 8 March 2026, with a soft grey-purple border wash. On the left, dark chocolate pieces and a blue oval sit beside a large yellow-green pasta bowl. In the center, a small red-rimmed bowl holds a colorful trail mix. On the right, a pale grey bowl of red lentil spaghetti in a cheesy lemon sauce sits beside bright orange wedges of fresh orange. Food names are handwritten throughout.

And then Sunday the 8th, and that’s it. The book is full.

This is the fifth time I’ve filled one of these little landscape books with food, and I have no plans to stop — I’ll just be doing it within my regular daily sketchbook from here on, rather than in a dedicated volume. There will be one more post from this sketchbook: the wireframe page design diagrams I used to plan these layouts, which feels like a fitting way to close it out properly.

If you want to browse the whole food sketching journey, here are the starting points:

February Wrap-Up: Cupcakes and Color Swatches

Spring is bringing better energy! Despite a challenging start to the year, I’m thrilled to announce I’ve officially wrapped up my Watercolor course. This month was all about marking moments—from Valentine’s cupcakes to the early blooms in my weed-filled (but vibrant!) backyard.

Watercolor Course Completed!

I’ve continued working through my Watercolor course, and I finally crossed the finish line! Honestly, completing this despite such a difficult couple of months feels like a huge win.

A completed sketchbook page featuring watercolor exercises from Lesson Four, including the cupcake sketch and backyard study integrated with handwritten notes.

To celebrate, I painted these Valentine cupcakes from a photo I found online. It was a fun way to mark the holiday and just play with color (Quin Rose and Pyroll Scarlet.)

A cheerful watercolor sketch of four cupcakes with pink frosting and small heart-shaped sprinkles, painted from a reference photo to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Record-Breaking Heat & Overgrown Weeds

My yard has officially been taken over by weeds this year! We are experiencing record-breaking temperatures, so everything bloomed a full month earlier than usual. It’s a bit chaotic out there, but it makes for interesting sketching.

A loose watercolor sketch of a backyard featuring a vibrant pink blooming bougainvillea bush in Quinacridone Rose. The scene includes overgrown weeds, a leafless pomegranate bush, and a couple of broken-down planters, capturing the early spring growth.

Paint Experiments and Palettes

I spent some time diving into the technical side of things this month. I wanted to see the true differences between Naples Yellow Reddish from Schmincke and Roman Szmal, as well as The Tint (Roman Szmal). They look so similar at first glance!

A double-page sketchbook spread. The left page features technical watercolor swatches of Naples Yellow Reddish (Schmincke vs. Roman Szmal) and The Tint. The right page displays an 8-color palette of Gansai Tambi paints in muted, dusty purple and violet shades, including a shimmering Opal Violet.

I also swatched a cute little 8-color palette of Gansai Tambi paints that I’d intended to use for February. Even though I only managed this one swatch page, these muted, dusty shades are so inspiring. The palette includes: Purple (37), Mauve Taupe (303), Opal Violet (638), Graphite Violet (261), Alizarin Crimson (304), Lilac (13), Cobalt Violet (139), and Old Mauve (301). That Opal Violet adds just the right hint of shine!

An 8-color palette of Gansai Tambi paints in muted, dusty purple and violet shades, including a shimmering Opal Violet.

For the color blocks over my notes, I also played with a gorgeous gradient between the two Naples Yellows Reddish. But the real star? Roman Szmal Lava. That shading and granulation are just incredible—what a fun, moody color to work with! 

A sketchbook page featuring a color-blocked text areas, one painted with Roman Szmal and Schmncke Naples Yellow Reddish, and one with Roman Szmal Lava watercolor, showcasing its unique heavy granulation and earthy shading

The Return of Food Sketches

With my health still being a bit troublesome, I’ve decided to restart my food sketching habit. I’ve picked up my 3.5×5.5 Epsilon landscape book from last summer. I’m diving back in and focusing on making the page designs more visually interesting this time around.

A pocket sketchbook spread in an Epsilon landscape book featuring grocery costs.
A pocket sketchbook spread in an Epsilon landscape book featuring ink and watercolor sketches of daily meals, including handwritten nutritional data and grocery costs.
A pocket sketchbook spread in an Epsilon landscape book featuring ink and watercolor sketches of daily meals, including handwritten nutritional data and grocery costs.

Looking Ahead

What’s next? The “Edges” course from Sketching Now starts next week! I’ve never made it past lesson one before, but I’m joining the group run this time to stay motivated. My skills feel a little rusty after the last few months, but I’m ready to get back into the flow.

Illustrated Food Diary Week 28

The ink and watercolor drawing style definitely takes more time that looser and sketchier styles. However, I am enjoying focusing on the principles of design for these. Applying page design, and the various elements, to the same daily subject definitely helps see what these elements can do for design purposes.

I am continuing my way through the various options on the design page sampler I posted last week. The variety is very interesting, and I really like these pages. Each of these took between 30 to 60 minutes each.