She Sure is {Sketchy} - Splish Splash

I stood there in the snow, the sand at my back and grinned. 

I take a huge stock in Birthday month. Birthday month is nothing to scoff at. On the last day of that birthday year that I get to spend as the age I am, I sketch like a madwoman and with real intent, my goal to freeze that day in time with a pencil. 

This year, I had to decide, what was I to do with this precious window of time?? It needed to be perfect. So of course in the dead of winter, I boarded the F train and made my way down to Coney Island, USA.  In the solitude and quiet of winter this part of Brooklyn is a spiritual experience of sorts.  

Friends offered to slough the day off of their job-job with me, but I declined. I wanted to commune in the best way I know how, just me, at the aquarium with my sketchbook.

This perfectly perfect day gave me 3 wishes that I have never had filled
in ways each wish was so wonderful that I didn't even know I had it until its criteria had been met.

#1) See an otter bang open a shell. I know we see this on National Geographic DVDs that we all watch religiously....anybody? anybody?  There's no way we get to see this stuff in real life. I was standing there, sketching this guy when a gigantic shell floated down from the aquarium feeding gods above. His delight when he caught it with his little paws was that of a boy on Christmas morning. He immediately went to work slamming it against the glass between me the two of us. He'd turn in spirals and then bang it against the nearest rock before stuffing it in his cheeks to gnaw at it. I was so overcome I barely had time to whip out my pastels. I got a few great gestures in. These two were my fave.

#2) See Sea Horses that are happy and not stoic and creepy in that 'pet store' way. I love sea horses, but somehow they always look so sad. The seahorses at the aquarium were CRAZY. When they are properly cared for sea horses are animated, they're silly, they're goofy centers of attention.

I had a long talk with a marine biologist while I was there, she was in charge of counting babies and making sure everybody got fed. How lucky to be there for feeding time! "Hey, I'm a children's book illustrator, what really important things do you know about sea horses from working here?"

-- "Oh they're the best thing in the ocean but they're dumb as hell."
The quotable biologist hipster (who I am currently designing a tattoo for) let me know that if I was doing a book on seahorses, they needed to look stupid, but lovable. I tried my best.

#3) Change an opinion I've had since childhood. I'm just going to say it. I've never been a fan of seals. Shocking, right? I've been called out on this before, so I'm used to the persecution that comes with abstaining from public mass hysteria for this particular water beast. 

Out in the cold for so long, I forgot all about the time. No one was really at the aquarium on a snowing 18 degree day, soooo no one came to kick me out.  I found myself there way past closing time. See? I told you, this was a perfect day. I was cornered in a segment that houses seals and not much else. When I least expected it, that's where I fell in love. This particular seal takes the prize for the most human behavior I've ever seen in an animal. It was a birthday miracle come true.

Wet and scruffy around the ears, he looked like a teenager dead set on growing his hair out. It stuck out in strange directions all over his head. I could imagine him running pomade through it while his mother scoffed at his vanity. He was perched on a rock overlooking the water.

When I was in the sixth grade we went on a family vacation to Las Vegas. It was there that my kid brother was formally introduced to two things, swimming pools without closing times, and the indomitable all-you-can-eat-buffet. Two days in and about 10 hours behind his normal sleeping schedule, full of everything he could eat in one setting I thrilled to realize he was falling asleep in his heaping bowl of ice cream. Having been allowed a place where there were no limits, he had become a lost boy. He snored into his strawberry with sprinkles, and to this day, I remind him of it when we are on a great vacation or when he's doing something as simple as splitting an ice cream sandwich.

So there he was. This seal was my kid brother, three sheets to the wind with a tummy full of rocky road. He was the kid in class who is trying with all his might to stay awake. I laughed and laughed all alone in the snow and the cold sketching to my hearts delight until I couldn't feel my fingers.

You know how you're next to the guy on the train who is drifting off against his will? That's this guy. He'd doze off, snout closer and closer to his chest until SNAP! He'd jerk his head up. "I'm awake! I'm awake, guys!" At one magical moment he fell SMACK! in to the water. The panic in his face when he jumped up and looked around was the same as a five year old who falls out of bed. "What just happened!?!?!" He calmed down, curled up in a fetal position in with his flippers interlocked, too exhausted to get up out of the water where he went right back in to his "stay awake! stay awake!" routine. Every once in a while he'd raise one arm high in to the air, the better to scratch his nose with.

It was the biggest delight in all my aquarium years, and  you know that's saying a lot. Happy weekend! I'm off to fantasize with people like me at this year's annual Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators.
This month just keeps on giving! I told you birthday month was serious.

Classy Fish

I am reading a deliciously inspired book.
Every page makes me want to readdress my favorite thing.

I have also playing with these fairies.
Their exquisite little features and feminine touches have had me start thinking about my favorite thing. 

So a lot of things in my life have me thinking about my favorite thing....

Fish are my favorite. 

I have brought you some classy fish. 

I hope you like them, because manners matter to these friends.

They hope they are your favorite too.

Sketching Social Media

I really couldn't help myself.

I tried....

but you know me, once I get started...I have a hard time stopping.

Have a day so great people whisper about it for years...?

I hope your birthday is the stuff of myths and legends!

I told my friends how old you are. They didn't believe me..?

OK. OK. I'm stopping.

Well, I am stopping for now.

For Brittany

A Recipe: Octopus Soup

Yesterdays book report on 'A Penguin Story' made me hungry. Inspired by the color red, and the book's ocean theme, I decided to make myself some Octopus soup.


Amberbop's Octopus Soup

Ingredients:

I only included measurements to keep it a recipe. I eyeball this stuff. I add things and subtract things and then add things again. I pretty much do all kinds of random stuff to this soup every time I make it. You should too. Just don't add octopus.

• 3 or 4 bell peppers - the more color the better the soup
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of milk*
• 1/2 cup of cream*
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans vegetable or chicken broth
• 8 oz. of meat - I use Pepperidge Farms Turkey Kibalsa**
• salt and pepper to taste
  
  *If you have an aversion to milk you can sub in 2 cans of cannellini beans beans in place of all dairy, have an aversion to beans, so this is how I play it.
  
  ** If my veggie friends want some I can say, ooooooh, i wish -- but it's not vegetarian.... Also, it adds heartiness. Its involvement in this soup is totally up to you.
  
  
  
  
  
  By now you have probably realized this recipe isn't an ocean-y kind of soup. Years ago I made it for a pair of boys I used to babysit, one of them was Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. The only way I could get him to eat it was to tell him it was octopus. He watched the pepper's gooey insides and sniffed around before deciding it really was octopus. Every time I baby-sat he begged for octopus soup. This blend of wintery-goodness has kept its moniker.

Directions

I have a gas stove. If you don't you can still use this recipe. However, I'd recommend you just get a gas stove. It's one of my top 10 favorite things about my home. When I visit elsewhere i feel bad for my friends who are without the perks fire cooking.

For a gas stove:

• I take off little metal raiser on a burner and then turn up the fire to high. Keep those flames hopping!
• Using long BBQ tongs and a hot mitt (LBH, I usually skip both and find something make-shift but this is my blog and I like you and I'd like you to be safe) put the peppers into the fire and let them get good and black as night, the blacker the better.
  

For an electric stove:

• Preheat oven to broil.
• Place the bell peppers on a baking sheet and broil on the top rack of the oven, using tongs to turn them as each side blackens.
• Make sure you're wearing pants for this part because when the smoke detector accidentally goes off and you have to jump up on a chair in front of your windows to turn it off, you're going to want to be wearing pants...
  

Now pick up here. The Choose Your Own Adventure is Over:

• Place the blackened peppers in a communal paper bag. Tightly roll the bag up and allow them to cool in there for 20 to 30 minutes.
  
• Once they've steamed long enough and are ready for their facials, peel the skin off the peppers. (If this is getting frustrating sometimes I peel them under running water).
  
• Cut out the stem and get rid of all the seeds. Marvel at how Octopi they look. Chop the peppers up if you're using a blender, if you're using a food processor you can leave them be. Put them aside.
  

• In a large pot over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic, zuke in the oil for 5 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Now host a meet and great for the bell peppers and everything already in the pot. Once they're combined, saute for 2 to 3 more minutes.

• Next, add the chicken broth and the beans or milk, stirring well. Using a food processor (top ten favorite thing about my home) or a blender, puree the soup in small batches and return to the pot over low heat for 5 minutes. Salt to taste, throw in any other herbs you think belong in there. Stir it up and then start singing that song about stirring it up. Eat some soup with your friends.

  

  --This is really great reheated and topped with a dollop of cream cheese right before serving. Enjoy. xoxo
  

Sketchbook Retirement - #32

Who: Girl of All Work :Desert Collection
What: Recycled Paper, Fabric covered, Ribbon Bookmark
When: July 2010
Where: Papél New York / 529 Court Street / Brooklyn / New York / 11231

Why: There was a hint of gold glitter in the cover. I liked the heavy pages with their rounded corners. It was the best book in the store and I wasn't going to Prospect Park without a sketchbook.

Underlying Unintentional Sketchbook Theme: Things that swim. Patterns that nature makes.

.....................................................................................

Dearest #32,
It's been fun. Remember when you bounced out of my raincoat pocket and onto the puddle covered sidewalk? I was beside myself with fear for your safety, but we laughed about it in the end. That moment even inspired some pretty cute art.

Sure, we've had our dalliances,

but we've also had our serious moments.

I know all the others here in the penthouse at 302 were jealous when I decided that you were the one coming to the Bahamas with me. You earned that trip. After all, I credit you with the brilliant creation of Sea Horse and Dolphin Paisley.

We had some great adventures, but my favorite times were the quiet ones. I think you really shined on our jaunts to the coffee shops. I know your favorite was Argo Tea in the Flat Iron building, that's where you really let your creativity shine.

I thank you for your support and your help. You were special and I will miss you dearly. I know our time isn't really over. I'll visit you when I'm stumped for ideas, and when I remember that I already drew some pretty cute acorns in you.

You'll see, it's not the end, it's really just the beginning, but you won't be with me on my commute, and you won't come to coffee houses with me this Winter. You've done your job and you've done it well and now it's time for you to join your predecessors. They've been waiting for you to show up for the party:

all my love,
Amber

P.S. While I've been retiring sketchbooks for years (I write some of this stuff on the last page of each book) this post was greatly inspired by Valerie Best's brilliant blog "http://thet-shirtproject.com/"
Read it. Love it. Be it.

When in Doubt...

Draw seahorses.

From Here to There

When I was a kid. I adored this funny book about a mouse who is trying to get home or to his grandmothers, it's a bit of a haze. He starts by driving, and then the tires get worn down. So he takes his bike out and rides his bike and then the tires get worn down, then he gets out his skates and tries to skate there - but you guessed it, the wheels get worn down. Finally, he sets out walking.

THEN HIS FEET GET WORN DOWN SO HE TAKES THEM OFF TOO!

Man, what a gem. If anyone knows what that book was called, 100 points and a hug. I'd love to have it here in my library of books for people under eight. I remember it being skinny and paperback and full of other ridiculous stories about this mouse. The illustrations were tiny and detailed and oh man, I hope someone knows what I'm talking about.

As a kid, when I used to dream about the best way of travel, and when I dream now of the best way to travel, I always dream of the sea.

Here are a few quick sketches (like 5 minutes worth) of transportation ideas this morning.

I'm going to refine them and put them up again here at She Sure is Sketchy, later this week.

As with everything I do lately, they scream surface design to me.

Happy FRIDAY!!!! WOOT!

Chillax!

Today I Drew A Whale

What did you do?

Dolphin Paisley

is there any other kind?

Every Little Thing We Can

When I was 22 I fell in love for the first time. I couldn't believe the magic that I felt was everywhere around me. When I tried to explain it to the boyish object of my affection, the only way I could describe it was

"I feel the same way about you as I feel about water."

To me that is what love is.

To this day, nothing has driven me in my life and my work more than my love of the sea.

I grew up on the North Shore of Oahu. My bedroom was closer to the Pacific than it was to the living room. My entire adolesence, every frustration and every horrowing (now hilarious) pain was always washed away by ocean waves. The sea has always been one of my closest confidants.

When I came to New York after graduating from Kahuku High School I couldn't sleep at night without the pounding of the waves on the sand. I longed for the Pacific the way I longed for my family. I am always homesick for the ocean.

When 9/11 happened I was close enough to watch the towers in the distance. I walked in Forte Green Park and had ash fall into my hair like snow. I felt the hollowing absence everywhere I went. I felt like nothing could ever be OK again. In my pain I was angry at the nation for feeling like they owned this tragedy. It had happened right in front of me, in my adopted home. How could anyone not watching in person feel the pain I felt?

On September 14th I went to Coney Island and sat on the boardwalk for hours, quietly staring into the horizon. That day my love affair with the Atlantic officially began. Through every heartbreak, and every outside stress, personal or public tragedy, nothing ever heals me like the reassuring calm of the sea.

This spill in the Gulf weighs on me like nothing has in years. I try not to think about it, and then feel guilty for protecting myself from that pain. When it washes over me it feels unbearable.
For the first time, I truly understand National Tragedy. I see how it touches all of us as Americans.

I hurt to hurt the Ocean. I realize that my loss is not the loss of fisherman and families watching the damage happen moment to moment. My home is not immediately threatened but it feels as if my heart is. I love the sea. Nothing is more sacred to me. We can help in little ways though we may be far away.

This Baby Mermaid illustration will be up for purchase with lots of other amazing art donated at
http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

later this week you'll be able to find larger prints of it at Etsy's Help the Gulf Coast Shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HelpTheGulfCoast

In both cases 100% of the money raised goes to Gulf Coast charities.
Please pull out your wallets or your paintbrushes and contribute to this cause in your own way. With a problem this big, we all need to do every little thing we can.

Out With the Boys

Tonight we will go to the Chip Shop. We will eat fish and chips.

Well, they will eat fish. In an act of defiance in the face of eating fish,
I will draw cute little fish.
We will all eat chips.

SCBWI - Paper Scribbles

I've christened this exercise 'Paper Scribbles'. Kevin Hawkes spent the second half of the lecture that we had with him coaching us through this imagination exercise and since I'm pro-imagination and want all my readers to use theirs more deliberately I decided this needed its own blog post.

If you are hard at work on this assignment you should look like this.
Kevin mosied in and out of the aisles giving critiques and chatting. He told me I have amazing color sense, so given that that comment was based on three random sheets of paper I happened to throw on a page, I'm going to hold onto it like it's iron clad truth. Haha.

• You will need:
  Something to cut with: scissors or an Exacto
  Something to stick with: A glue stick, Rubber Cement, Elmer's
  A stack of colored paper
  A medium that takes you out of your comfort zone, I chose chalk pastels because I am dumb when it comes to using them. Find something that speaks to you like that.
  
  
• Here's what you do:
  Pick three colors that are bright and happy from your bouquet of paper
  Cut and tear the paper into random shapes
  Glue them on the paper in a way that gets your creativity on the bus
  Using your new medium create a happy illustration incorporating your random shapes.
  
  
• Try doing this with different papers that evoke different feelings. Use scary colors to make a nightmare of a picture, etc.
  
  
• If you get a chance to do this exercise let me know about it in the comments on my blog! I'd love to see what you come up with.
  
  
  Start at the very beginning:
  3 colors. 3 shapes.
  

make them into something.
Draw on your idea a little more.

Fin.