The Shizen Design Sketchbook and "Nintendo Power" Studies

 I can't leave good old Artist and Craftsman Supplies without buying a Sketchbook.  You know how it is.  And my hankering for a nice, thick Watercolor paper sent me home with a very unusual one. 

 

This is the Shizen Design Rough Surface Watercolor Sketchbook and it is a beauty.  The covers are gorgeous and sturdy, I love the ribbon closure, and it's nicely crammed with thick, handmade paper.

Emphasis on the THICK.  This is thick, rough-surface watercolor paper.  I like some heft in my drawing paper and I like a little tooth but this was almost like drawing on a pile of paper towels.  

I have to say, I was struggling a bit - until I chanced upon something I wouldn't have expected to help.

Nintendo Power magazine on the Internet Archive. I found this in Autumn and read up until about the early 2000's. It was more fun than I ever would've expected and even prompted my very first Bluesky thread (and my goodness, I hope this embed works and is also in order, ha ha.  If not, have a link).  

So I’ve been reading this almost-complete archive of #Nintendo Power magazine and finding some pretty cool art and stuff. (Might fool around and start my first Bluesky exclusive thread…) archive.org/details/Nint...

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— Trish (@babbletrish.bsky.social) December 1, 2023 at 5:09 PM

As you see, I fell in love with the art.  Up until a certain point, I guess, Nintendo did not have their own in-house illustrators, and the "default" look for their many characters hadn't been nailed down yet.  They hired illustrators from around Kyoto and so we get delightful results like Shotaro Ishinomori's "Link to the Past" comic and whatever this incredibly Kid's Magazine From the Late 80's art style is.

And at some point, I decided, "I love this so much, I should draw these in my Sketchbook.  It's not great for doodling, but it's perfect for long... I'm going to call these Master Studies."  And so:

These was so much fun!  I ended up using the softest pencil I have and a double-ended permanent marker for the lines and my trustiest set of watercolor paints.  you can see how soft and toothy the paper is in these scans.

I couldn't not draw Megaman as he appears in "Captain N: the Game Master".  Look at him!  I really do think "Draw Your OC/Favorite Character/etc. In the Specifically Wrong Way DiC Would've in the 80's-90's" would make for a great drawing challenge.

Next week: A Sketchbook for a Good Cause.

Goat Yoga and a Sketchbook Roundup!

 I not only have sketches from a Goat Yoga experience we had at a local dairy farm, I also have a Sketchbook Review!  First, a roundup of recent Sketchbooks:

The one I'd like to talk about today is the Talens Art Creation Sketchbook.  

It's rather nice.  Very good for drawing on the go and the pages have a nice quality, as you can see:

So what did I think of Goat Yoga?  If it's your thing, cool, but I don't see myself doing it again.  I had more fun sketching and petting than exercising.

Next week - a very unusual Sketchbook with very unusual needs... 

Sketches from "Nature": "A Fistfull of Talons"

 While I'm aching for a rerun of "Raptor Force" some day, this was an outstanding episode.  Secretary Birds!  Seriemas!

 

The Extinct Fine Art Gallery

Me and many other very cool artists are participating in the Extinct Fine Art Gallery.  My paintings are going to carry over into the next "cycle" of exhibits on Friday, so you have a couple more days to see the first round and-

"Trish, this is your first blog post in two years, where the blazes have you been?" 

Ah yes.  Well, in a word, I've been busy.  I've been gradually shifting my online presence over to BlueSky, and that's proven to be more of a project than anticipated.  It's been hard, but I hope to get back into the art sharing and blog-posting groove.  Thank you for your patience.

Vintage Paleoart: Rien Poortvliet's Journey to the Ice Age

Many of us probably know Rien Poortvliet for Gnomes, which is an undisputed fantasy/fantasy illustration/speculative biology(?)/well, spec-bio-adjacent masterpiece.  But he had many other beautiful books to his credit and among them, surprisingly, is a work of Paleoart:  

Journey to the Ice Age, published in English in 1994 by Harry N. Abrams is every bit as beautifully crafted as Gnomes and once again, Poortvliet's love and careful observation of the natural world shines through.  The paintings are based on his thoughts wandering while sitting in his hunting hide.  

A highlight of the book is it's focus on prehistoric people.  I'm especially fond of the series of paintings speculating that the first human to ride a wild horse was either very brave, very stupid, or some combination thereof and also somebody triple-dog-dared them.

And now, the mammoths.  Poortvliet had a few mammoth specimens on hand, like hair and a vertebrae; tactile reminders of the beasts, so they are never far from his mind.  This is a very beautiful book and I'm happy to have stumbled upon it.

Sketches from "Nature: Dogs in the Wild"

 This was a really good multipart episode because it focused on rarer, lesser-known canines.

Disney's Animal Kingdom 2023 Sketches and Trip Report!

Earlier this year, my family and I went to Walt Disney World.  Here are some thoughts.

The Flower and Garden Festival was lovely as usual.  We got to ride on everything we'd wanted to experience.  The weather was perfect; we even got to float in the pool more often that I'd expected.  And the new-to-me Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was a blast!  

A few not-so-great things: EPCOT is really suffering with all the construction in Future World (and the day I call Future World "World Celebration/Nature/Stuff" is the day I call Twitter "X").  Space 220 had very good food and I enjoyed some of the little touches, but for the price and popularity, I was expecting more than feasting in the warming glow of a screensaver.  The idea is similar to Coral Reef but I think I'd rather eat in the company of real actual fish.  On the subject of food and drink, I did not care for the Villain's Lair retheme of the Bay Lake Tower DVC Lounge.  Not everything needs to have Disney characters or a Theme and we all agreed that the drinks are ghastly!

And Genie+ is a disaster, but I think I went over that last time.  I still can't get over how confusing this must be for Newbies.  Dear Joe Disney, your park has too many attractions named “Space”, “Star”, and “Galaxy”.  Please change the names of three.  (I’m not a crackpot.)

Anyway.  Animal Kingdom sketches!