GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Drawings

  • Inktober ’25, (eight pack 1/4+Dominion)

    This year, I focused on the words. My spring explorations of folded cards pulled me away from the 5 Word Poems and the summer detour into the ruling pen (which loves big) didn’t help with the resuscitating the 5WP format.

    ,

    9/30

    inkTober ’25

    This was done with a dryish brush with old clumpy ink. It made for a great texture on the page, but left a few spot marks on the scanner cause I rushed to get them into the box.

    I cheated slightly, pulling the “ink” to overlap the “Tober”. Even though I try to avoid over processing, I’m not above digital. These compilation posts are my confessional booth.

    I’ve been playing a lot with Gothicized Italics, so it naturally became a big part of this year’s scripts. This was my last assigment for Inktober since it was more important to complete the daily pieces first.

    Last year I tried to make each piece on the morning of the challenge. That’s hard! This year, I finished everything in September while convalescing from the that liver infection. So now I’m posting leisurely and enjoying what others are sharing.

    So really, my true #inktober is copying flourishes from Arthur Baker’s sample books.

    ,

    10/1

    Mustache

    This was made with a ruling pen, dipped in a grey wash of saved water after cleaning my tools.

    I’m really happy with this piece, a strong start to the month. I wasn’t as happy with all thirty-one pieces, but that’s life.

    ,

    10/2

    weave

    Confession: I digitally swapped the final period from bronze to blue.

    This piece is a direct variant of my August experiments with overlapping Gothicized Italics in a notebook.

    8/25

    ,

    This crown was slighted tilted, but the crossed O felt like a gem.

    10/3

    This crown is well balanced and I prefer the curved n as a mirror to the C.

    crOwn

    The red and blue design was a second series after scanning in the initial set. Even so, I’m still not happy with the final piece—calligraphy is an ocean of practice poured into a single moment, that might not go your way. If this was my profession, I’d be obligated to hit perfection, but as a hobby, I can settle.

    ,

    10/4

    murky

    This was made with a Dreaming Dogs Layla ruling pen, which has a slight curve. Videos show that you can make a very wide line, but since I was using the thin grey wash, this is about as wide as I can get.

    I love split line effect when you go really fast with this pen.

    ,

    10/5

    deer

    I had a brutal time with this one. I tried to capture the leap of the Deer using cursive, but was unhappy while scanning it. So I tried making a logo. Again unhappy. Finally found something by starting with a lowercase “d”.

    Fortunately the paper is thick enough to reuse the back of the sheets. Even after failing both sides, they become the background for experiments before attempting finished pieces.

    ,

    10/6

    pierce

    Unlike deer, I had a concept that executed beautifully. There were several pieces that were presentable, but this one stood out with the bleeding red.

    Even then, I’m still a tad dissatisfied with the piece. The piercing action would have been more pronounced if I stopped it inside the opening of the “p”.

    ,

    10/7

    Starfish

    One of my mantras is “when in doubt, add noise”. The ruling pen gave a little splatter, but it had more promise by using the back of a practice sheet. Right before posting this piece, I utilized a new mantra “try inverting”. I don’t love this digital crutch, but it works too often to ignore.

    ,

    That first week in October just flew by. While I’m certain my body is still quietly recovering from my liver infection, the most noticeable thing is catching up at work. Being semi-chastened with that medical scare, I’m now much better at letting things slide into tomorrow.

    There’s always more work.

    Cya next time!

    ,

    PS—Dominion

    My daughter and I have been playing Dominion a lot.

    Even at seven, she reads darn fast. Enough to play a game with lots of text.

    My wife hates wordy card games, but the girl has a lot of fun because she enjoys buying stuff.

    For a while we played without attack cards, but she’s warmed up to the inclusion of such cards when I promised I wouldn’t purchase those cards.

    She also prohibits deck thinning cards. She senses the power of this strategy but has no interest in trashing old purchases.

    The original 2008 base game is better for playing with a child than the revised version. The new deck manipulation cards are fine for lifestyle gamers, but sometimes simplicity is better.

    Either way you can’t go wrong. Dominion is an amazing game. It’s too bad I didn’t realize it when I was gaming every Friday night.

    Then again, it’s damn cool to explore it with my own kids. That’s a trade I’d gladly make, eight days a week.

    —August 2021

    ,

    PPS—Dominion Prosperity

    Top tier awesomeness is hearing your daughter claim Dominion as her favorite game when introducing herself to the 2nd grade class.

    Admittedly, we’re not playing competitively. She’ll take credit if she’s winning, but if she’s losing then we’re on a team while her stuffies take the fall.

    But no matter, she enjoys playing.

    The strategy is simple. Spend all game buying stuff that lets you buy more stuff. A nice intuitive mechanic—even the 3-year old has taken to directing us to “buy” this or that.

    She still won’t let me play the attack cards, but I’m just happy to be able to watch them in action.

    If you like money and buying stuff, Dominion Prosperity is a great addition to the base game. Based on this article by Donald X. Vaccarino, I suspect I’ll be buying Empires for Christmas.

    Is there a better endorsement than continued patronage?

    —September 2021

    ,

    PPPS—Dominion Empires

    Unlike his sister, the boy grew up with an older sibling who gives no quarter.

    So unless it’s Snorta, he only plays cooperative games. As such, Dominion Empires has not gotten much play.

    Two summers ago, I found a cooperative variant. He had fun a couple times as I basically played for both of us. Last week, we watched My Neighbors the Yamadas with subtitles so I realized that he can read at the level to play the game proficiently.

    It worked OK, they enjoyed the time. But she still doesn’t fully enjoy the cooperative version and he still has no interest in playing Dominion competitively.

    —October 2025

    .

    PPPPS—Practice

    3/5

    .

  • stripes

    I had to cheat a little for this one. Is this six stripes or seven? And there’s more stripes if I shift the frame a little.

    In collecting these numbers, I went out on an early morning walk and snagged a bunch of them. I had trouble with four and six, but it doesn’t take much to find the numbers and letters out there.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

    ,
      

    They created a library after an episode of Bluey,
    Furniture piled in the center of the room as a reference desk.

    They lined my books along the wall “for adults”.
    (They already had a shelf books from the library district)

    Mini was the library pet,
    Mr. Little Wooden Guy held up signs.

    I was a teacher bringing a class of stuffies,
    Field trip to the the library!

    The next day, I returned with a family of bears,
    Daddy, Mommy, Bear Bear, and Adventure.

    When the show was ready, they ushered us into the bedroom stage,
    We bought the cheap seats—they came with a sheet over my head.

    I watched the shadows of the boy and girl,
    Dancing with abandon.

    —26 August 2023

    .

  • blades

    As an architect, I stare at ceilings. While being wheeled to the MRI and getting a drain stabbed into my liver, my main memory was watching the details where the ceilings met the hospital walls.

    Ceiling fans, especially with light kits, are an unloved feature of residential architecture. In today’s conditioned age, they are somewhat redundant. But they’re still part of life in a hot climate. Even if they don’t get used, it’s better to have one—with four to six blades—than to have none.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

    My wife made homemade noodles last night. She uses a recipe that is 2 parts flour, 1 part water, and 1part eggs.

    I’m a fan of a decadent 3:2 flour to egg recipe. But no matter, her noodles were tasty and springy. It was great in a soup, then as part of a stir fry, and finally as a treat for lunch.

    When we first started making noodles, we rolled it by hand. That’s a lot of work! So we got a KitchenAid attachment, which was expensive but has been among our most used kitchen gadgets.

    These noodles might be an unnecessary expense of time and money, but what a savory little luxury!

    .

  • magnets

    On vacations, we have settled upon magnets for our souvenir, usually purchased on the way out of the park after it has closed.

    Last summer, I initially settled on a nice, mid-mod, metal and enamel Disneyland magnet, only to find this quartet of Munchlings at the next store over. So the Mouse got us twice.

    We also got a 5-pack of Mickey Mouse lollipops to ostensibly alleviate the boy’s motion sickness. It did not prevent a couple of incidents on the winding road up to Big Bear.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

    ,
     

    I can’t believe our Disney + Big Bear1 trip was almost a year ago. As the years tick by, I’m becoming more aware of how few of these trips we will have together. That said, counting down futures vacations is a very nice problem to have.

    This year’s summer trip was a family reunion out in Portland. With the advice of a friend and my sister we hit up a bunch of cool places over five action packed days.

    • The falls. As advertised, this is the must visit. Take the Historic Columbia River Highway and hit up the falls along the way. We went on a weekday, but I suspect it’s impossible to find parking on Summer weekends. Visit the Gateway to the Gorge Visitor Center for a possible free parking permit at the famous Multnomah Falls.
    • Mount Hood Fruit Loop. We drove around and got some nice scenery, but it was late in the day so we didn’t get to see much farmy stuff. We had already eaten by the time we got to the “Gorge White House”, but this place had a great vibe.
    • Bonneville Fish Hatchery. A free must visit to say hello to Herman the Sturgeon. The kids had a blast feeding trout for a quarter.
    • Farmer’s Market at PSU. Epic vibe on a lovely Saturday morning.
    • Peninsula Park and Rose Garden. Late one evening, we ended up wandering around the Rose Garden with my sister. The warm weather and the late summer sun made for a magical moment. It was nice to offload the kids for fifteen minutes with their aunt.
    • International Rose Test Garden. Lovely as well, but nowhere as intimate or charming as the garden at Peninsula Park.
    • OMSI Museum. What you might expect from your local kid’s science museum. The highlight was a chemistry lab which the Vegas Discovery Museum does not have.
    • Portland Japanese Garden. Gorgeous garden. Not cheap, but we easily spent a good four or five hours there before heading out to the airport.

    Even though public transit in Portland is better than most suburban metropolises, I’m certain that it is vastly preferable to have a car. And if you have a car, the “Parking Kitty” phone app makes it super easy to pay at the meter. Aside from that, I guess one’s visit is at the whim of the weather gods. We hit record highs, but for folks from Vegas, that wasn’t a deal breaker.

    In all, a great visit. When we go back, I’m guessing we’ll check out some other places to mix things up, but we’ll return to the Falls, Bonneville, Farmer’s Market, and Peninsula Park.

    .

    1. In the post with the wolves, I forgot to mention that the kids had named them Sesame, Vanilla, and Cloud. So the full name of the stuffy from the gift shop is named “Rocky, Sesame V. Cloud”. ↩︎

  • vials

    The boy gave me three vials filled with colored water. She followed behind, shooting photos with a wide angled lens. I’m not sure what they were scheming, but they were giggling the whole time.

    I can’t believe how quickly time flies. Last year, work was grinding down my body and psyche. Fortunately I only had three weeks left before jumping out to the airport.

    I was trying to do right for the Division on the way out, but it was time to decouple.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

    We played Marco Polo at home

    Marco’s white cane was
    a roll of old drawings.

    She started next to the bed
    I walked circles around Marco
    until cornered by the bathtub.

    He cheated,
    hiding in the closet,
    standing on the toilet.

    Never said Polo!

    Finally caught,
    he grabbed Marco’s shirt
    and followed her around,
    a little red caboose.

    We finally made him Marco
    He squinted, not blind,
    swinging his cane as a baton.

    Ouch!

    —August 2023

    .

  • wolves

    Last summer we visited the Big Bear Zoo. It was HOT! The wolves thought so too.

    There were actually three in the exhibit and on this platform, but I needed two, so I picked this photo. It was a moment of wonder to be half an inch from these majestic animals.

    While viewing the wolves, the kids named them Sesame, Vanilla, and Cloud. So the full name of our wolf stuffy from the gift shop is “Rocky, Sesame V. Cloud”.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

    Two little fish harass the shark.

    My arms clap like a crocodile—clap! clap! clap!

    Eeeeeeee!—they jump off the boat-bed into the carpet-ocean, only to race back on deck.

    They hide under boxes—he can’t eat a turtle!

    The second they step out, this shark drags them into the deep, black bathroom.

    Clap! Clap! Clap!—I stalk the cook in the kitchen.

    Nooooo! we must rescue Mama!

    —2023

    .

  • finger

    After months of craziness at work I picked up the pen to draw my hand again. As the pen meandered across the page I was impressed with the magic of marks in 2D turning a white sheet into hint of fleshed out reality.

    At the time I was also one story from finishing Calvino’s Cosmicomics, thanks to M. E. Rothwell ’s encouragement to pick up the book.

    A few weeks later, I picked up a new badge and swiped in at the airport.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     

    ,
     

    ,
     

    ,
     

    ,
     

    ,
     

    ,

    I forgot lunch at home.
    No matter, I keep sardines in my desk.

    Mama had a bright idea.
    She came to the park near the office.

    They played on the structure in the golden sun.
    I ate my lunch at 4.

    Homeless guys surveyed for cigarette butts.
    One coughed.

    The boy slipped off the steps and cried.
    Blamed his sister.

    We lectured about personal responsibility.
    He moped.

    They drove off to violin class.
    I worked till 8 (these four day weeks run long).

    .

    —2/20/2025

    Hat tip to Hazel Burgess who encouraged me to try blind contour drawing!

    .

  • zoom

    The girl grew out of her car seat onto a booster seat.

    Time goes fast!

    As soon as she was in the booster seat, she had another growth spurt, so that’s gone too.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
      

    Headphones and Piano Bench

    She grabbed my headphones,
    Put it on, pulled out the microphone.

    Dragged the piano bench into the study—
    A newscast.

    Two high back chairs
    And a wooden board to complete the set.

    She interviewed
    Her brother.

    Next morning,
    He filled cups with blocks.

    Juice
    (sorted by color).

    A new café
    On that piano bench.

    As I yammered on,
    Wearing those headphones.

    —2021

    .

  • yacht

    I have a weird work schedule so I sleep in my own bedroom. When my mother in law stayed with us, I moved a mattress into this loft with half of the kids’ books. It’s so cozy that I’m still here.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
      

    One summer morning in 2021, we played in the five-foot side yard, hiding from the sun’s brutal light.

    We just bounced a red ball back and forth.

    He stood in the middle to intercept the ball.
    She threw it over and around her brother.
    I just tried to keep it from devolving into pure pandemonium.

    In that moment, I realized this was a once in a lifetime event. It was so out of normal, this wasn’t going to be repeated.

    A few minutes later, breakfast was ready.

    .

  • xyris

    Last May, I finally walked the arroyo in the neighborhood. The gravel gully led to this very concrete channel where plants insist on taking root in every available crack. I now regularly stroll thorough this arroyo, feeling the microseasons. It’s my path of centering.

    ,
     

    ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

     ,
     

    This afternoon we walked a couple loops around the local elementary school. The second time, boy decided to ride his bike. He swept circles through the parking lot, his teal jacket basking in the golden haze of an almost setting sun.

    This is a time of utter chaos that will eventually reach us 2,400 miles out from its epicenter.

    But today was a perfect day.

    As I’ve matured, I’ve realized that we never get to live our dreams (life is much too mundane for our wild imaginations). That’s OK, this dour realization has freed me to savor such fleeting moments.

    .