this week’s word is “frustration.” i think that’s a good word for tuesdays in general. do your own math on that one but there’s no doubt it’s high on the list of words that fit. i figured this out due to my synesthesia of course. this connection came to me because of the beautiful and special way my brain is crosswired. these are just the kind of insights that i cannot help realizing constantly in my day to day life due to my unique little sparkling confused neurons.
just kidding. i don’t think i’m a synesthete. also no shade if you are.
frustration is still the word, though.
let’s get into it and see what i’ve been bashing my little noggin against this past week.
1. painting
well, it’s not nothing. i have opened up to you all in the past about how much i hate painting clouds. it’s still true! this week i made some realizations that may or may not help, though.
thing one: references help. duh. i’ve talked about this before too and if i make it to the end of the year having done nothing else but instill better habits re: using reference material, well, i will count that as a win.
thing two: this is one area where i think physical painting has a huge edge. feathering edges, softly blending, just barely skimming the surface and dragging with a brush to get those nice streaks in the distance that let you know if things keep moving your way, you’re going to get soaked to the bone. if i was a professional digital artist, i would set a serious chunk of time aside to figuring out which digital brushes i could wrangle into even getting close to mimicking that behavior.
that’s actually what a lot of time was spent on this week - fucking around with a million different brushes to try and find something that did what i wanted.
anyway this is based on a photo i took out in eastern oregon last summer, right getting toward about sunset. i did end up getting soaked by this thing, in fact.
composition sketches. figuring out the horizon line mostly, vague ideas of values. also getting my hand moving in those sweeps and swoops that clouds need. getting used to that motion.
i worked on this in chunks. setting it down and coming back to it later. this is, after all, the whole point.
this is one of the first color studies. there’s nowhere near enough contrast, so the horizon doesn’t glow with that weird energy you get under storm clouds out east. and of course i haven’t done any thinking about the foreground yet. but the cloud masses are sort of working.
parts of this kind of work. but this isn’t really the right brush to get those streaks, at least not with the look i was going for. still not enough contrast either.
i almost stopped here. but when i picked it up again, i realized that there’s essentially a big lazy blur in the middle of the foreground where i gave up on drawing vegetation. not good. so i reworked it into the final you see up above.
2. poem
“tomato poem” - spring 2021
we thought you were dead —
we got your letters,
each one unfolding into shapes we didn’t recognize
is it true that the walls are warmer where you are?
is it true that you’re the kind of person now
who eats salted tomatoes
as a snack?
3. shrimp curry
wow, no way! dude did you seriously figure out how to make another disgusting vegan replica of some kind of seafood? you are killing it.
this weekend a couple friends in my isolation bubble (is that still a thing or has that popped yet?) got some amazing takeout from ichiza here in portland. including some vegan shrimps that were frankly astonishing in their accuracy. the flavor, sure, but the texture was a home run. i couldn’t believe it. and i was curious if i could pull it off as well, and you already have guessed i am sure, that i could not.
but here’s how the attempt went:
i’m trying two methods here. one (Version A), ultimately based on an italian vegan blog that a bunch of other people referenced. and one (Version B) where i’m completely winging it based on my past experience making rice noodles for pad see ew.
Dry ingredients for Version B. Rice flour, tapioca flour, and that beige powder is xanthan gum which i have a bunch of from the time i decided i wanted to try and make cold brew frappucinos’s without all the added sugar.
wet ingredients, version B. this is just a… slurry, i guess is the best word… of rice flour and water and little oil. you make this gloop. then the gloop gets folded and mixed into the dry ingredients and you get a dough.
dough. i added a little bit of seaweed flakes to this at this point for some flavor.
version A: you take some basmati rice, sprinkle with rice flour, and mush into a kind of a paste.
then you smash your paste into shrimp shapes, and dip it in more water-rice flour slurry and carefully shape them into shrimp. as the slurry dries, it holds the things in shape. at this point i am thinking this is going very well, and there’s no doubt those things roughly resemble shrimp.
version B (rice noodle dough) is a million times easier to shape into shrimp. these are dusted with rice flour because otherwise they are too sticky to handle. but they’re basically just chunks of noodle.
boiling up some kombu and a few other spices in this broth. this is to give them their flavor. ideally.
toss them in and simmer for a few minutes.
then, to get the color and more taste on them, you cook them quickly in a hot pan with garlic, ginger, sriracha, some other stuff. flipping them once and hopefully establishing some sort of crust on each side.
the rice ball ones disintegrated. i mean, duh, i guess. the noodle ones held together very well though! they kind of look like shrimp!
this isn't really about curry but here’s the stuff for a very simple red coconut curry. this part was tasty. curry is hard to fuck up i think.
ok, well, it kind of looks like shrimp right? in that sense, the rice noodle version was a clear winner. but the texture was too soft and gluey almost - it didn’t have that more crisp snap sort of feel that i remember from real shrimp.
also, the simmering method of imparting flavor did not work at all. i think the way to go would be to marinate them instead of just quickly boiling them. then sear them real quick for the crust. i’ve also seen a method that uses seitan as the “filler” with a rice paper wrapper, and that seems like it might work really well. those rice paper wrappers get really crispy really fast when you heat them up.
another week, another cautionary tale.
4. time to cruise
seems like we’re finally getting our $2,000 (1400 + 600) soon. i have long wanted a cruiser bike as a “fun bike” but i have never been able to justify that to myself. also am i really the kind of guy who has two bikes? doesn’t seem like a positive development. maybe a lateral move.
but also: cruiser bikes are very fun. some of my fondest summer memories growing up involve riding shitty cruiser bikes around tiny Oregon towns. no helmet needed (mom don’t read this), a nice slow pace, you can put a basket on the front or hell even a cupholder and i bet you wouldn’t spill a drop of iced coffee even when you’re cruising over the railroad crossing.
so this week i am starting the search. and i guess i will be the two bikes guy.
and in honor of that, here’s a promotional poster for Sunriver, Oregon that i made last year that for some reason they still aren’t using.
well i think that about does it for this week. see ya next tuesday. bye.