Tag Archives: food sketching

Food Sketches Weeks 22 to 24

The first two weeks of this challenge has proven interesting. It is a big effort to sketch every meal, every day, and I’m definitely learning a lot about not only sketching in faster ways, but in managing time so it fits.

After the first ink and wash sketch took 3 hours for the day, I realized I need a much faster approach to sketching these if I’m going to be able to sustain the project daily. However, I noted in past food sketchbooks, I get a bit bored of it, so this time I thought I’d vary my techniques and tools from day to day, and that might keep things from getting too boring. A couple weeks in I’m already thinking this is a bit too much of a time commitment, but I need to finish the sketchbook at the very least!

The fastest method by far is paint only, shapes only. I do love this style of sketching, and that’s what I’d default to when busy in the past, so I have whole food sketchbooks full of that style. I look forward to continuing, and focusing a bit more on page design to see if I can do interesting things that way, too.

Illustrated Food Diary

One subject that is always available, and is conducive to using different techniques for sketching is food. This might be just the subject I need to kickstart the resurrection of a daily sketching practice!

In past years I’ve kept a food sketchbook here and there. Sketchbook Volume 5 was food from 1 February 2020 to 11 March 2020.

Sketchbook Volume 7 was food from 1 February 2021 to 13 March 2021.

I continued with Sketchbook Volume 8 from 14 March 2021 to 13 April 2021. I picked it up again on 17 January 2022 to 22 January 2022.

Sketchbook Volume 11, in August 2022, I was sketching food in with everything else, instead of having a dedicated sketchbook for it.

I would sketch food off and on irregularly for the remaining volumes until July 2024. I felt the food was dominating the sketchbook too much.

My notes indicate Sketchbook Volume 16 is also food, but I don’t have that one scanned, and I am not entirely sure where it is, so I shall hunt for that one.

I’ll start sketching my food again, though I’ll make no goals for how long. I want to use it to get back into a daily practice. I have a small Stillman and Birn Epsilon 5.5 x 3.5 inch that I briefly used years ago, which seems good to use up. The small size and landscape format works well for food sketches. Thusly I will begin sketchbook volume 21, another food sketches volume.

It will also be nice to document the food, as food prices are going up again. Also, I have always found it very useful to have the visual record of what I eat, as I have so many allergies, and auto-immune issues with food. It’s a big challenge, though, and I’ll admit to some trepidation about even sticking to it for a week! Ha! But hey, a week of daily sketching will no doubt feel great, and I’ll get the sketching daily practice and habit going again. Which is the ultimate goal.

To being strong and with momentum, the beginning of today’s illustrated food diary page!

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 21

Not much sketching this week. I had sketched these early on Monday, and wrote about them already.

The rest of the week was just the date and temperature until I squeezed in a quick sketch of the grocery delivery.

I’m starting to think of ways to get a more consistent practice in, and what do I need for that. I’ll share as I go along, since I know a lot of people want to keep an illustrated diary sketchbook, but struggle with it, too.

Here is the week spread. (I originally typed “weak spread” and almost decided to leave it, since that fits, too! Ha!)

I will confess that I’m looking forward to finishing this Stillman and Birn Delta book and moving on to different paper. I have only four spreads to do, and one of them has some swatches I’m building up on the last page.

I will continue with my challenge to work through all of the Stillman and Birn options available in this 5.5×8.5 inch landscape softcover size sketchbook. I am learning a lot about their papers! I won’t be using the Delta again, due to the pilling under more water, and the bleeding various mediums. I do like the Ivory color paper, but the Gamma paper is much better behaved for what I do. Next up is the Beta paper, which I think is going to behave like the Delta, only in white? I’ll find out!

Continuous Lines

I do so love drawing with a continuous line. It is so freeing! It reduces a complex subject into something utterly doable, and low pressure! I must remember to use this technique far, far more often!

First was a few kitchen items. I grabbed a box of lemon ginger tea, a lemon, and fresh ginger root. Cute! The exercise was to do the outlines, and here they are. I had so much fun I had to do it a few times!

Next assignment was to sketch part of a house that had some foliage in front of it. At least that’s how I interpreted it. This was even more fun! I really love how easy these were, and the energy in the sketches. It capture something special my more careful sketches don’t.

Next time I look forward to trying an even more detailed version. Maybe add the roof tiles for some texture, over and above the tree limbs. My sketchbook page got a bit crowded, but that’s the fun of being “on location” and working with what you have! I am nearing the end of this 7.5 x 7.5 inch Stillman and Birn Alpha. I’ll have to decide what size I’ll be going with next!

I decided to dust off my food sketchbook. Since this is the week of continuous line, I had to apply it to the food sketches! Not all of these little sketches are in continuous line, but I found it super helpful to sketch the pasta and the chocolate chips. Subjects where the detail typically overwhelms me.

I am also working on my sketchbook design skills in the food sketchbook. It is a good subject to practice spanning the gutter, and varying layout options. I’m obviously heavily influenced by Liz Steel and her magnificent classes, especially Sketching Now Sketchbook Design.

Speaking of challenging subjects, I attempted drawing something I would never have tried before, and I sketched this view of the Natchez steamboat by using continuous line. I rather love it! The cathedral I sketched using what I learned in Sketching Now Buildings, and much to my surprise, it turned out so well. This might be my favorite sketchbook page of all time, and certainly my favorite in this sketchbook!

Thanks Liz! I couldn’t be doing this without you!

Sketch Kit and Color Blocks

Things are moving a bit slow around here this past week. I’m back to a tighter lockdown situation as COVID-19 cases are on the rise and I’m in an “extreme high risk” area. I have lots of unfinished pages but a few finished ones.

Some random sketches and collage, little bits and pieces from my days. My current sketchbook is the Stillman and Birn Alpha softcover 8×10″ so that’s what I sketched for my assignment in Sketchbook Design.

I do love the Alpha books, they are great for pen and ink, and watercolor. I’ve never had a page bleed, no matter how wet I get it. But I do begin to wonder if some of the wet in wet techniques I’m seeming to want to achieve need a paper with some cotton content? I will have to experiment in the future, but for now this is the sketchbook I have, so this is the very best sketchbook! (The best sketchbook is the one you have with you. Ha!)

Continuing on, I sketched the most basic version of my current sketch kit. I haven’t really settled on which pens, or which brushes, so when in doubt I reach for the pocket brushes, my Lamy pens, and my current watercolor palette. The bag is the amazing Walkit bag, which is fantastic, with many loops for pens. I’m currently carrying too many pens! Really. I am.

I haven’t done a food sketch in a very long time, and I just had to document this delicious pesto pasta I had!

Hmmm, could that food sketch layout be improved with a border? Class has me thinking these things!

Speaking of class, did someone say color blocks? I was documenting the mix of things I had been researching that day, and decided to jazz up what would be fairly basic line diagrams and descriptions with some color blocks. I used washi tape to make crisp edges, and aimed to make these have a parchment look by using Daniel Smith’s Goethite watercolor. Apparently I should really learn to sketch larger since I ended up with a lot of unused color blocks. I thought about sketching in them a few random things, but in the end I’m moving on. The unfilled blocks tell even more the story of the day (and the week) than filling them in! Besides, it also celebrates how great that parchment effect was, and I’m pretty pleased about that!

Food Sketches Feb 2021

Sketching your food everyday is like sketching boot camp. It was also a great way to get back into the daily sketching habit. (I did very little sketching during 2020.) My aim was to work fast, get my color mixes as accurate as I could, and, of course, record the moment. Most of these I sketched after I ate, from photographs, since I haven’t yet mastered the self-restraint not to dive into the food when I’m hungry!

I find that sketchbook design elements really do help these pages come together. The frames, the text, the date heading. I shall be working with those elements more for the next food sketchbook.

This sketchbook is a Stillman and Birn Alpha softcover, 3.5″ x 5.5″. I’m probably ready to move to a larger size, but I have this size already for the next one.

I do confess that these sketches, and the preponderance of the Buff Titanium that is my flatware, gives me the urge to buy more colorful plates!

Experiments with Food and Color Tests

Food sketches and color tests were a big focus for much of the rest of my very first sketchbook. This is an A5 Leuchtturm Sketchbook, which I was beginning to realize was not very good paper for the wet techniques I prefer. That did not stop me from playing with and finishing the book. Here continues my tour through Sketchbook 1A.

Love this Lasagna sketch!

Here I am testing Monte Amiate Natural Sienna, Geothite, Naples Yellow, and Quincridone Gold.

More tests of Monte Amiate Natural Sienna and Goethite, this time with Buff Titanium, and Van Dyke Brown. I also Tested Transparent Pyrrol Orange versus Pyrrol Orange.

This is the Big Impact palette produced by Expeditionary Art and Uma Kelkar. I was testing out what kind of mixes I could achieve with it, in order to get a feel for it.

My primary palette, as it was when I finished this sketchbook in February.