Magic Bread

I'm late to jump on the bandwagon, but the no-knead bread experiment led to finding a 2006 YouTube video with Mark Bittman of the New York Times, watching baker Jim Lahey bake beautiful no-knead bread in a cast iron dutch oven. A follow-up video details minor improvements. Here I've substituted one cup of whole wheat flour for white, but otherwise followed the improved version. All it contains is flour, salt, yeast, water and a few drops of vinegar. Wow. Incredibly easy, and it may just be the best yeasted whole wheat bread I've ever made.

Different Kind of Pizza

My friend Jeri introduced me to a book, Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. The very wet yeasted dough isn't kneaded, and it can be stored in the refrigerator for over a week to be shaped and baked as needed. Yesterday, I used the last of the master dough recipe for pizza, too impatient to make their olive oil pizza dough variation. It will be fun to continue experimenting, but a first attempt provided a wildly puffy result.

Christmas in September

© Ellen Blonder

One of the weird things about designing holiday greeting cards is that you're always doing them out of season. So here's my upcoming Christmas card preview, finished in a September heat wave. The poinsettia was posted in progress earlier this year, but for Christmas, a brown background didn't seem right. I've silhouetted the flower against layers of text and a repeat pattern that I drew. The red area, when folded, will be the card back.

It All Adds Up

I've been distracted from posting lately, but I realized all these posts add up. To see all posted art, click on the Ganesha above.

Tulips-Reaching into the Archives

© Ellen Blonder

Reaching back into my old art, I've used Photoshop to change the color story and touch things up. I had never been quite happy with the original gouache color combination, but pre-Photoshop changes would have meant either completely repainting it or overpainting existing color. A further complication is that colors never dry the shade that they are wet. I still like the hand-painted texture of the original, though. Dead flat colors wouldn't look the same.

Below is the design when worked into a repeat pattern. The design, intended for fabric or gift wrap, was never used, by the way.

© Ellen Blonder

Short vs Long Poses

© Ellen Blonder

In yesterday's drawing session, we worked with a model who paused intermittently for a few seconds of stillness(sketches on left) in otherwise constant motion. It made the four-minute poses (sketches on right) feel luxuriously long. Unfortunately, the extra time also makes it way too tempting to tighten up.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation-Day 5

Best. Pizza. Ever. We found this at Serious Pie in Seattle; it's part of Tom Douglas' restaurant empire in that city. At 3:30 in the afternoon, the place was packed. This is the gold standard, with a light but chewy crust and delectable choices. My order was topped with chanterelle mushrooms and truffle cheese. Perfect!

We were tipped off to this place on Day 4 of our vacation by a chance seating at a Portland wedding next to Blaine and Cheri Walker, owners of the 42nd Street Cafe, tucked away in the southwest corner of Washington state. We regretted we didn't have time to detour there, too.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

On a driving trip north, my husband and I stopped in on my old boss, who lives in rural northern California, almost to the Oregon border. The sketch shows a working outhouse between the apple trees, but the toilet in front of it is just for decoration. It'll be planted with flowers.

© Ellen Blonder

We continued on to lunch at Culture Works in Ashland, Oregon. The veggie panini served on a crusty ciabatta roll burst with garden freshness. Attention to organic ingredients showed in this vegetarian restaurant/performance space. I wish we could have stayed for dinner.

Life Drawing This Week

© Ellen Blonder

My daughter Lisa was home for a few days, and we spent one morning at a drawing session. The model completed 61 poses in a three-hour period, with most poses lasting one to four minutes. Here are a couple of four-minute poses. See Lisa's on her blog.

Parrot-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Finished.

Parrot-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

The foliage needed to be brightened, so most of it has been overpainted. The shell ginger flowers still need work.

Parrot-Days 4 and 5

© Ellen Blonder

I've been working on the feathers before I finish out the foliage.

Parrot-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Adding detail to foliage catch as catch can lately.

Parrot-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Just laid in washes today so I could see how the parrot will look against all that green.

Parrot-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

This doesn't show up very well, but I'm sketching a parrot on a 12 x 24-inch canvas board. The parrot was photographed by a friend on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. I'm taking it out of its urban setting in favor of tropical shell ginger.

Life Drawing

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

The drawing at the top is a ten-minute sketch that I did months ago; the one at the bottom is a five-minute sketch of a different model from two weeks ago. I just discovered a drawing group nearby, where no pose lasts longer than seven minutes and most are one to five minutes. It feels like an all-out sprint to draw that fast, and a session is three hours long. It's a workout--and I feel out of shape.