Scavenger Hunt from Life #123 - July 22 - 30

Joan, the cactus hasn't bloomed. It was a gift in a plastic silver looking bowl with no drain and I don't think the cactus likes it. The strainer is so good! Your storefront is full of fun stuff. Nice you gifted it! Nice they host a show. The flowers are so well done.

Ai, welcome home. We so enjoyed your trip, too.

Fletch, thanks.

joe1lt, thanks.
Thanks all for the likes.
 
I sketched on my footstool in the big Canson Mixed Media sketchbook with the Acurit 03. The pages aren't that thick. I tried to use the bleed for shading. Just made my hand look dirty. I see bananas behind it after, should have sketched bananas in my hand. Ha.
Number 3 hand held - popcorn
Number 4 table top with stuff - blood pressure cuff, computer, thermometer, etc.

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Ai, how long was the flight to Tokyo for you? My sister and her husband, who live in Maine, recently went to Japan to visit their son who has been working and living there for about 8 years. It was their first visit and they had a great time. They didn't really spend time in Tokyo...mostly they were in the Osaka area and where he lives. Thanks for your comments about the shop sketch. Debbi asked me a long time ago to do a sketch of it, but it is in a fairly busy spot and it is hard to get far enough away to see the whole shop. The traffic blocks it too.

Fletch, lol sometimes it is hard to decide what item on the list to use. Thanks for your kind words.

Joe, thank you.

Jo, thanks so much. Debbie's shop has sold quite a number of my paintings. Of course like any shop/gallery by the time you deduct the commission you don't get much. But it helps give me some fun money for art supplies. :) I like your hand holding the popcorn. Funny how the shadow from the other page looks like a banana. lol Your table with the objects looks so neat.

6 - something I see away from home (sailboats) - watercolors & ink (There must have been 20 sailboats on the beach when I started sketching but they all went out fairly quickly for a class.)
7 - person
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8 - free space - watercolors (Sketched at the Clark Botanic Gardens.)
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Jo: Thanks. Wonderful sketches of handheld and table tops with many items on. Love the elegant lines on the table leg too.

Joan: Thank you. Love your sketch of the sailboats and the garden at the botanical garden. Excellent drawing of floor tiles. :) I think Tokyo is a super big city but it has many variety of things for everyone's liking. It only takes 6 hours flight from Tokyo to Bangkok Thailand. We often stopped at Narita airport during our USA trip but we had never got out of Narita to visit Tokyo before, until our recent trip last week. The hotel we stayed was very close to train station, food shops, postoffice, etc. and also situates in between both the old Japanese town section called Asakusa (the local call it A-Sak-Sa) and the Kitchenware district called Kappabashi. I remembered walking behind a nice young white man dressed casual in black and white T-shirt... but seemed special somehow from other ordinary foreign tourists... Then he strolled into one of the big knife shops at Kappabashi... Then my thinking was OK... He was a young professional chef. Besides, there are also several of Japanese fake food model shops in Kappabashi, that you will love to sketch. They look so real and cute. We stopped at one of the shop that had a 1.5 feet high replica of super tall burger... that look so real and fun to see at the same time. I think you will enjoy sketching at so many kitchen shops front of Kappabashi and Asakusa. Besides, Tokyo has several of interesting Parks too. We only did visit a small corner of one park, Ueno park. I wish I could find the giant blue whale statue in Ueno park and sketch it... but there was no time for me. Besides, for artists like us... there are so many mega art supplies shop for us to check out, the best one in our opinion was "Sekeido" in Shinjuku.

Besides, Japan has so many good train systems, once you figure out how to take local train in Tokyo using their tap-and-go IC card, call Suica or Passmo, then your life is easy. Their Tokyo train stations also have good elevator systems to accommodate the wheel-chair or elderly people. All train information is also shown in English. Tokyo is super clean and safe as well. All people we met were very polite. For us, our girls love the anime epic center call "Akihabara"... just so many giant buildings, multi floors full of anime model, cards, and game stuffs.

And for all 4 of us, we love shopping at Daiso shop (most items are 100 yen) and a more premium items shop called "Don Quijote" or "Donki" for short. Besides, we also went to many location of Bookoff, and Hardoff (discounted book and hardware items). We did not buy stuffs that many, but for us it is fun to just roam and browse cool stuffs.

I lucky got some discounted cool art books (in Japanese though): one was the auto bio of the late famous Japanese children book wc illustrator, Chihiro Iwasaki ... some of her works are shown here,

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the other is drawing instruction books that I love. At Sekeido, there are many best anatomy for anime illustration books, that have wonderful highlight of muscle section in color codes. Just amazing.


As this was our first family trip to Japan together, we decided to based our trip entirely 6 nights in Tokyo as I found out that we can easily take a train day-trip to Mt.Fuji (Fujisan) and back to our hotel in Tokyo in the evening.

And of course, I am a foodie, so the visit to "Kimuraya" in Ginza, the first western bakery in Japan to taste out their breads, and special Anpan (bread with red-bean filling.. Japanese signature bun) was absolutely strikes my heart glow. I hope to go back there for more leisure restaurant meal on their 3rd floor.
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If one day, you and Jerry decide to go, I can hint you the name of our Tokyo hotel that we really like (but the square feet is typical super small for Tokyo real-estate though). This trip, we did not book any museums or shows, or zoo tour though... we just wanted to keep our trip simple by going to places that always open to us, whenever we feel like visiting as we hope we can come back to Tokyo and other parts of Japan in the future.
 
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Ai, thanks for all the info. I have no plans as of now to visit Tokyo, but it sounds like a really interesting place. My sister loved the area around Osaka. It was so different from any place they've ever been. It helped that her son is fluent in Japanese (He teaches English at a school in a small town there about 2 hours from Osaka.) and he was their tour guide for most of their time there. I like your ambitious sketch of the currency!
 
Joe 1lt...nice to see your sketches. Thanks for the artist notebook/tool journal paragraph. Strikes a cord with me:)
Exploring these sketch pages of yours is fun finding little nugget images - all have a feeling of an artist in "the moment". Thanks

Ai - Hi, bet you are home now. Thanks SOO for the great recounting of your trip. It sounds like an especially stimulating place for artists!! ... understatement....... Love the line sketches of money.....detail is so much fun when you get to noodle around!

Jo C - lazy is just about the best excuse!!(y) I too had hoped to get more sketches down and today I hope too....Super coffee table sketch - lovely hand- especially the fingertips...relaxed and soft.
lovey strainer and coffeetable. you are nearing closer to mastering the grey markers....love how the contrast is working. Nice detail on the plant holder.

Joan - the chickens are great! spot on body language - nice- I havent tried using watercolor in such immediate demanding portrayls - thanks for the inspirational boost! Great atmospheric boat place....wow - 20 down to 3 that must have been interesting phenoma. Very snug patio sketch...I LOVE how everything merges. Really like that alot.
Great side story about you and Debbi/shopkeeper. SO GLAD to hear your art is getting out!!! Wonderful!! Two great pieces..the boats and the flowers & vase. The color combo on the flowers and vase is interestingly mild yet strong. I dragget it to desktop for future study.. ....soon or never !

Fletch - o glad you got something in the pocket! It is fun to flip thru one after they've somehow managed to accumulate. Easy to store too!!! Good job on the subtile transition ...creates gentle form and viewer feeling....an artistic top for good living too....thanks for that.
 
Jo - Handful of popcorn made me smile as I would have eaten more that I drew. The table is great. Nice details. All our tables are cluttered and drawing so much is intimidating.

Joan - Do they race close enough to shore to watch the races or do they go out to open water? Super sketch. You have me scratching my head to remember proper name for that style of sail. Going to bug me until I look it up. All your garden pictures always leave me looking at all the greens.

Ai - Sounds like you all had a good trip that was fun for everyone. Nice sketches of the money.

Looking forward to the Olympics. Gymnastics always amaze.
Keep sketching
Fletch

Edited to add. That style sail is called a gaff rig sail. In looking that up found out that a gaff rigged boat with mast forward near the bow ( like in Joan’s painting) is called a catboat. So found my answer and learned a new term.
 
#2 ear - Multiple grades of graphite in A5ish size sketchbook. Didn’t get the skin texture very well. Think I was focused on all the little shapes. Ears are really interesting. Lots of planes. Did not tell the model she was modeling that helped minimize movement 😎
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Keep sketching
Fletch
 
Done at the dentist clinic while waited by using ink on a pre-grounded blue WC page

#4 useful
#5 circle

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Ai - Good use of time.😬 A bad pun but could not resist. Straight to ink still scares me.

Robin - How do you make a little animal look so soft and cuddly but make a pretty woman with a great smile look so sour? Great job on the hand and the whisk..

Keep sketching
Fletch
 
Robin,Ai, Fletch, wonderful art,
Ai, wonderful art and photo from Japan.
I think Japan is a very dreamed destination here in Italy because many of us loved Japanese cartoons, anime.

I still really like the theme songs of Japanese cartoons.
 
Robin, thanks for your comments! Great page of sketches! Love that face and the cute ear!

Fletch, the boats took off and were too far away for us to see anything they were doing. They were gone the rest of the time I was down there. Shh...I won't tell Sharon you were sketching her ear...nicely shaded. I was watching some of the men's gymnastics. Watching the women's relay now and the USA took silver.

Ai, I like the variety of clocks.

Joe, great assortment of figures!!

I sketched Carla Marla, and ice cream shop in Bellport.
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9 - circle (bike wheels) - watercolors and ink
10 - many triangular flags
11 - wall of the building
 
This set was done using markers...
#6 handheld...a laddle
#7 vegetable
#8 only has one ...a bottle of Chinese ink

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Ai, I like how you showed the texture of the broccoli with the markers. Nice ink bottle and ladle too.
 
I borrowed some models from the girls...done with a 2B pencils.

#9 faces...can you name any of them?

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Ai, cute figures!

I had my iPad by the pool with me today.
12 - pertaining to legs (chaise lounge) - Procreate
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