Show and Tell

Happy Fall everyone! My schedule has been a little hectic lately and I haven't had time to write. I wish I could go on a mini vacation before the holidays...Anyway, I just want to write a follow up post about the mushroom which I forgot to mention in the previous article. I hope no one went mushroom hunting recently. So here's the deal. Before you cook your mushrooms, have warm salt water ready and soak the mushrooms for 30 minutes to get rid of unwelcome hitchhikers, then you can prepare it however you want. There you go, I hope I didn't forget anything else.

Whew! Now that's done, I can move on to a more exciting story. Well, I met a little girl named Lucy, she's four and loves to draw. I have been very lucky to receive some of her artwork including school projects and I want to share them with you.



How cute are they? I just love kids art! They are so free and expressive. They don't care about negative and positive space or if the colors are in harmony, all they care is having a crayon or pencil in hand and a piece of paper to record their thoughts.


I found this one in the folder where I put all the kids' artwork. I'm not sure who owns this masterpiece but if I had to take a guess, it's probably Ayame's, my goddaughter. I hope these inspire some of you to draw even when you don't think you're good enough to sketch a circle. Drawing should be unconstrained and enjoyable – something that we all need to relearn.

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"
~Howard Ikemoto

Portraits

I am still working on my painting. I might be able to finish it tomorrow but today I have something better. Here are some of the best portraits I have ever seen. Check them out!

This is my mom in her blue jeans courtesy of Sarah, age 5, one of the kids she takes care of.



And this one is from one of my sister’s students. My sister teaches preschool. I love the long green locks, I think it suits her.


Last but not the least is me! This is my portrait from my friend Penne when she was 5.

I hope you like them. I will post some more in the future.

A present from Ayame

Our little friend paid us a visit on Saturday and showed us how to draw Christmas presents. We assisted her in drawing some of the gifts. Here’s an early Christmas present from Ayame. (A collaboration between a great artist and her two apprentices.)