Nope, not ice cream—it's one of the three themes for theydrawtober, and today's prompt was "chestnuts." Do you know how boring chestnuts are? I mean, if you want to really show off your ability to imitate lifelike light and shadow, you can grab a handful, put a light on them, and try to copy the shine, but...hm. I finally decided to do just one, and do it cracked open but mostly inside its outer shell, which is prickly and in my favorite lime green.
In the process of looking for a reference photo, I picked up a few facts: Chestnuts are more like fruit than they are like nuts, with a high water content and little or no protein or fat. They are mostly carbohydrates and sugars, comparing with wheat or rice, and have twice as much starch as potatoes. We don't grow many in the States because of chestnut blight, but import a lot from other countries. Various delicacies are made with chestnuts, typically by the French (marrons glacée) and Italians but also by the Hungarians and Swiss, and a liqueur in Portugal. Other cultures mill chestnuts into flour for baking, use them as stuffing for poultry, ferment them for beer, and roast them as a coffee substitute. They are well-used, therefore, despite their repelling outer shell!
"Chestnut"—Uniball and watercolor in Bee Sketchbook.
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