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One of the biggest blocks my drawing students tell me they face is not being able to think of anything to draw.


Have you ever thought of drawing your recipes?


It’s as daunting to tackle a realistic drawing of, say, a cheese soufflé as it is to make one, but drawing just the ingredients usually boils down to (no pun intended) just being able to draw some very basic shapes.


If you can draw a zero, you can draw beans, pine nuts, and sugar plum tomatoes. A fat letter  C with some detail lines gives you shrimp, circles are peas, a spiral and a couple little lines gives you chopped scallions - you get the picture.


You won’t believe how much fun this is until you get started. And it makes for great art journal spreads or even an illustrated cookbook of your favorite recipes (great gift idea). You can use a photo to show the finished dish. . .

or draw it?

Fe - Fi - Fo - Foam . . .

Setting up grids or boxes (frames) takes away the fear of the blank page because it isn’t blank anymore (I know - duh!), but for some reason, it also makes drawing seem easier because how far afield can you go inside a little box?


There are lots of ways to set up a creative grid so you don’t just have straight old boring boxes. This is just one way - which has so many possibilities!

Just a few of the things we threw on some mixed greens for a really good fiesta salad. Not pictured are the chopped cilantro, grated cheese and sliced avocado. Fresh salsa for the dressing - yum.

Fun Foam represents one of those blessed events where something born as a toy for kids, grows up to be a great art tool for grown-ups. My dear buddy, Vesta Abel, did amazing things with her Veggie foam for years.


I don’t do amazing things, maybe, but I do a lot of very useful things with it.


One of those is making a quick stamp for whatever I want - whenever I want it.

Fun Foam is available in all the big craft stores in a thinner and thicker version. I prefer the more heavy duty, more *expensive* version (1.29¢ as opposed to 79¢ for a 12”x18” sheet), because the double thickness makes a better stamp. (Actual brand names vary.)


Fun Foam cuts easily with scissors, paper trimmer, or craft knife because it is soft. I cut my rectangle frame with a paper cutter, then used a ruler and craft knife to cut out the middle.

And here is my champion of double stick tape. I love it so much, I require it for all my art workshops. It is wonderfully tacky - and it removes easily.


Better than that, it doesn’t lose its tackiness when it gets wet. As soon as it’s dry again, it’s sticky again. This is awesome when you want to clean your stamp under running water.


Some folks have trouble finding it. Click the picture for a good online source at a good price and buy more than one roll because you’re going to fall in love. It’s also out there as “scrapbooking” tape for about a dollar more.

This link by the way (click the tape) takes you to one of my favorite websites - thenerds.net. I consider it a “Great Find”. I love the name first of all, but secondly, it’s like one of those sites that seems to carry everything in the world - from art supplies to camping gear!! So take a minute to have fun shopping - and just for kicks, search the site for any bizzaro thing you might be looking for. You might just find it. I have.


They even have the foam sheets!! A package of forty 5.5”x8.5 inch sheets for $6.99! Make sure to get the 3mm thickness which the linked package is. That puts you in the foam stamp business right off the bat! You could have a foam stamping party!


Anyway, back to mounting the foam stamps.


You can mount them to any acrylic mount with this tape (that’s how I mount *all* my unmounted stamps), but, after mounting and unmounting a few times, the foam can tear. So I mount mine on that stiff clear plastic that everything comes in now (you have to recycle all that excess packaging somehow!). Or I heat laminate an empty laminating pouch to get stiff, clear plastic. The stamp can stay permanently mounted to it (as shown above) and you can use it as is . . . or, mount the whole shebang to an acrylic mount with our cool tape. The thin plastic backing will mount and unmount over and over with no damage. That’s because the tape is *removable*.

And how did I make that colorful border, inquiring minds want to know?


With foam stamps, of course - a rectangle and a triangle (two triangles actually).


I mounted the rectangle and stamped sequentially through a rainbow stamp pad I had (Colorbox).


Ink lines and arrowheads were added later.


I think this might be enough fun for one Saturday, so I’ll let you go practice cooking up a great recipe page.


Have fun.



WORKSHOP ALERT

In case it slipped your mind, it’s not too late.


A new session of Art School 101 for the Journal and Sketchbook just started today. Learn to draw for real.

Be creative with your recipe frames - don’t just line them all up. Tilt and overlap. Use lots of colors. Try making a few different sizes to use together. Your page will look like art before you ever start to draw - which will really take the pressure off.