The Process of Drawing a Picture

I’ve been making a lot of sourdough bread recently and learning a little bit each time which goes towards making the next loaf a little bit better too. One of my loaves came out of the oven last week and was so pretty that I had to draw it.

A recent loaf of sesame topped sourdough bread that I made.

I’ve been wanting to do some more pen and ink drawing work and the details in this loaf of bread were calling to me. I roughly sketched the placement of the bread on my sketchbook page and then started inking with a favorite fine tipped pen, a Platinum Carbon fountain pen.

It’s always interesting seeing paintings and drawings in process because there’s always a stage of not really being sure that the thing is going in the direction one was hoping for. Then steps are taken to work out the issues and usually it turns out well in the end. It’s a bit like life, isn’t it? 

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the end of the first session’s drawing of about an hour or so.

Sourdough Bread Process

Most of the loaf is now drawn and the paper it’s sitting on has been included.

Sourdough Bread Process

The bread is complete. I wanted to include the paper and only make darks and lights using my one pen. It started looking like a mistake.

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the finished drawing. I decided to use a watercolor pencil to color the paper the bread is sitting on. It looks good in the end.

The Joy of the Right Tool for the Job

My thoughts today are about the enjoyment of having the right tools or equipment for the job.

I’ve been making sourdough bread and keeping a starter going since May. Not long but it has been a daily thing since the starter needs feeding with more water and flour every day. It took a long time before I actually made any bread because I needed to get the starter going. Then came the process of learning how to make the bread, what recipe to use and how much time would I need? Lots of learning curves and lots of trials to practice making bread.

Sourdough seems very different than yeast based breads because so many of the recipes are based on weight. Although maybe that’s true about yeast breads these days too. I learned how to bake bread in the late 70’s and early 80’s from cookbooks and all measurements were in cups. American baking is different from the rest of the world in our attachment to cups and measuring spoons. Most of the sourdough recipes called for a kitchen scale. I broke down and got one and have been inordinately pleased with it. It is so much easier to measure with.

But the thing which has me really happy is my new Dutch oven. It’s a big, heavy cast iron thing with a fitted lid that can go into the oven and be heated to a high temperature without issue. Prior to this I had been using a ceramic bowl with a cast iron skillet balanced upside down to make a lid. It was kind of a cobbled together arrangement. It worked well enough to learn from, but it was clear that it wasn’t a long term thing. My ceramic pot seemed increasingly unhappy with each time I used it and I always had the concern that the skillet would somehow fall off the pot midway.

My new Dutch oven, the piece of equipment that is always referred to with sourdough bread, arrived on Friday and I used it for the first time yesterday. Perfection! What a loaf of bread! I’ve practiced, yes, but having the right tool for the job is pretty wonderful too!

I’ve found great pleasure when I upgraded my sewing machine, using certain sketchbooks, certain pens, a good pencil sharpener, a good knife, a well weighted spoon, etc. What tools or equipment do you find great satisfaction in using?

Sourdough Starter

I’ve made bread many times over the years and am very familiar with how that process works and what the steps are needed to make bread. Recently though, I’ve made my first sourdough starter and then sourdough bread. The starter takes one to two weeks from the original mix of flour and water until it has grown enough to be used to cook with. It requires a daily feeding which is a little bit of yesterday’s starter and some flour and water. Then it grows on it own, until the next day. I haven’t named my starter yet but I’ve heard of some people that do!

With time, the dough gets smoother on its own.

The funny thing that I’ve noticed about sourdough starter and bread making, which is different from dry yeast bread making, is how the flour, water and starter just need to be mixed into a shaggy mass or roughly mixed together. There is none of the gradually incorporating the flour by kneading until it all is smooth and elastic. Magically just by waiting, the starter “eats” through the flour and it becomes very smooth, almost silky in texture. It’s an amazing transformation and I enjoy watching it happen each time! I can assure you that’s not the way I left it after mixing it to begin with.

What occurred to me is that this process is much like coming up with new ideas and skills. Yes, practice is involved and effort, but there are times when what’s necessary is just to have all the parts in place and then sit on it for a while. Just wait and let it be. Give the idea some time and then look at it again. Often by magic the idea has grown and changed to become something more polished than the rough stage I started at.

My thoughts on creativity courtesy of sourdough starter.