Watch. Learn. Shake.

"SAVEUR magazine's Executive Food Editor, Todd Coleman, shows you how to peel a whole head of garlic in less than ten seconds."

This actually freaking WORKS. I tried it. [Update: I now do this all the time. Piece of cake!]
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I am not sure if this is a spoof or not: 10 Bullets. By Tom Sachs.  Seems it's gone 'viral' in corporate America. More on Tom Sachs. You decide.

Be cheerful

I found this old and brittle and yellowed sheet recently in a stack of papers. I think I remember my Mom carrying it with her. The transcription:

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life 
keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

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It appears to have been written in 1959 by Reverend Frederick Kates, rector of Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Although there is some confusion about it. It sounds very 1950's-ish, though, doesn't it? Very plain brown paper kind of naive and hopeful aura to it.

Read

This is done with the Pentel Hybrid Technica 06, which washes okay. Surprisingly.

A White Man

This is 7" x 7" on Stonehenge "Kraft" colored paper. It's done first with a white gouache+white ink mixture in a folded ruling pen. Then finished with watery gouache.
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Beat down! and
"Good morning, good afternoon, and good night Detroit!"

Now is good

Inspired by Mr. Steve Light, this is done with Sheaffer Scrip ink, in "Brown", with a sumi brush and a folded ruling pen.

Roosterville

This is a delightful sketch by artist/illustrator Steve Light, where he uses a big rooster feather brush to lay on the big mark and then a fine drawing pen to draw in the detail.


Excellent stuff. More here!

October Pear

This is about 5-1/2" x 7" on Rives BFK paper and is done with by golly practically every medium I have in the place. Begun with an ink-in-brush-pen sketch, worked over with gouache, picked at with wc pencils, and then finished with pastels.

Sketch Kit for Everyday

Plus the 8" x 8" sketchbook, this is my everyday sketch stuff as of this very moment.
    
   left to right:

• Kid Palette + paper towel + tiny ziploc bag
• Pentel waterbrush
• Pilot Razor Point
• Pentel Hybrid Technica 06
• Noodler's Flex (Lexington Gray ink)
• Kaweco Classic (Fuyu-syogun ink)
• Kaweco Classic (Kiri-same ink)
• Kaweco Classic (PR Velvet Black ink)

    bottom:

• six Caran d'Ache Supracolor watercolor pencils in a plastic tube

Balls

Dot Peeps

Earthquake damage inspection. Dots crawling up and down an icon. “She’s kind of an old lady . . . but she’s doing great.” 

Wait. "She"?

Pear on Rock

Tiny Speck of Rock

You. Must. Watch.

Herr Spachtelmasse

This is about 7-1/2" x 7" and is done with modelling paste, gouache, watercolor, and ink.

Talking Lady

Getting closer and closer to actual likenesses. As opposed to caricatures. This is progress.

Why waxia.

This is done with PR Velvet Black ink using a shredded bamboo stick that I picked up "down county" a few months ago. I dribbled in some Dr Phil Martin's Bombay India Ink, in Terra Cotta, which is some pretty scary gooey stuff.

I am inspired by the exercises and images in One Drawing a Day, by Veronica Lawlor (2011). This book gives you permission to make a mess.

Eta’m chik chuplinik

This is about 6-1/2" x 7", done with gouache on old crumpled Rives BFK paper.

(The sketch underneath: a Pentel Aquash waterbrush filled with Nooder's Lexington Gray "bulletproof" ink.)

Critical Response Process

Choreographer Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process is INTERESTING.

Details are in her book Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process: A method for getting useful feedback on anything you make, from dance to dessert (2003)
 
The Process engages participants in three roles:
 -- The Artist offers a work-in-progress for review and feels prepared to question that work in a dialogue with other people.
 -- Responders, committed to the artist’s intent to make excellent work, offer reactions to the work in a dialogue with the artist.
 -- The Facilitator initiates each step, keeps the process on track, and works to help the artist and responders use the Process to frame useful questions and responses.

The Critical Response Process takes place after a presentation of artistic work. Work can be short or long, large or small, and at any stage in its development. The facilitator then leads the artist and responders through four steps:

1 Statements of Meaning: Responders state what was meaningful, evocative, interesting, exciting, striking in the work they have just witnessed.

2 Artist as Questioner: The artist asks questions about the work. After each question, the responders answer. Responders may express opinions if they are in direct response to the question asked and do not contain suggestions for changes.

3 Neutral Questions: Responders ask neutral questions about the work. The artist responds. Questions are neutral when they do not have an opinion couched in them. For example, if you are discussing the lighting of a scene, “Why was it so dark?” is not a neutral question. “What ideas guided your choices about lighting?” is.

4 Opinion Time: Responders state opinions, subject to permission from the artist. The usual form is “I have an opinion about ______, would you like to hear it?” The artist has the option to decline opinions for any reason.

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Lerman, Liz, and John Borstel. "Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process." Contact Quarterly 33.1 (2008): 16-20.

(adapted from Unlocking the Classroom, 2009)