Killer Guac!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you're spending it with friends, family or someone crush worthy!  This is one of my favorite recipes to make when I have friends over or I'm visiting my family.   I've been playing with some new textures and hand lettering.  What do you think?

If you want to see more illustrated recipes head over to They Draw and Cook! It's an inspiring site full of illustrated recipes from artists around the world.  I always end up finding a new dish I want to cook or a new favorite artist.

February Sketchbook peek

I love seeing other artists work in progress, so here's a few shots of a new recipe I'm working on. I've been itching to incorporate more hand lettered text into my work.

And more pattern... always more pattern.

These colors make me very happy.

By now you've probably guessed what this is a recipe for... I'll have the final posted sometime next week!

What I'm working on....

I was very resistant to working digitally. I thought the computer was evil itself. Now that I've figured out how to use it as a tool... I'm hooked! Seriously... what was wrong with me before? It has allowed me to be spontaneous in my mark making, change around lousy compositions and experiment with color/texture.

So... I was a little nervous about going back to the basics of paint and paper. But as I started painting this week I felt more confident then ever. I still love it!!!!!

Gettin' Figgy wit it!

This week keeps getting better and better! In addition to entering the squid contest on Spoonflower I was working on an entry for California Figs and They Draw and Cook's Year of The Fig Contest! There were many tasty looking recipes on their website that you could choose from.

I looked at a lot of fig recipes but ultimately decided on this one from Serious Eats .

I snuck in my entry at the deadline. There were a lot of really great fig recipes: Ingvard the Terrible, Lucile Prache, and James Gulliver Hancock were among my favorites!

... I came in 1st for dried fig recipes!!

I really like having a warm bowl of oatmeal in the morning but I had never tried it with figs. Turns out figs are amazing with a bit of cinnamon, vanilla, and honey. I like adding brown sugar to mine too! I love the shape of the figs and I wanted to make sure they were highlighted in my recipe. In the past I have struggled with getting all of my directions to fit on the page. I decided to try to be minimal with the written steps and really focus on the imagery.

A big Thank you to Nate and Salli from They Draw and Cook! If you haven't seen the new website go check it out! It has all these great ways of searching for recipes by artist, meal, ingredients, art style and country. Anyone can submit an illustrated recipe on their site. So... if you also like cooking and drawing, what are you waiting for? Submit a recipe! It's fantastic to find a site like TDAC with so many other artists that are as passionate about cooking and drawing.

Pie in your Eye

This time last year I was still in Japan. Although I was thankful that my family was able to come visit me, I was also missing my bf, friends and delicious American traditions that I had taken for granted... such as pie!

This year I tried my best to make up for it!

A friend recently told me that they had never tried pumpkin pie, he didn't see the point in finding another dessert he might enjoy but have to eat sparingly. Booo... 1st of all Pumpkin pie is the healthiest of pies! 2nd, it is truly the most American pie, I would argue more so than Apple! 3rd its a crime to live in New England and never had tried one... a crime against Paul Revere, Norman Rockwell, and Tom Brady. (They are quintessential New Englanders)

So yeah.. These are pies my sister made for the holidays and I enjoyed each of them! This post is a little late, as are my Holidays Cards sitting on my desk... le sigh. But this year I will try to do better.

Food for the Fall

Mmmmm squash... Although it didn't come to me via csa, I thought it deserved a little celebration. I've been indulging a lot in foods I missed last year while living in Japan. (squash, mac and cheese, risotto, hot chocolate, apple cider, roasted veggies) There was plenty of squash in Japan, but it was never pureed or roasted. Speaking of which... I'm a little behind on the veggie drawings. Here's a squash study for a Butternut Squash, Sage and Bacon soup.
Butter is so hard to paint!

I've been busy mailing out promo cards, visiting A.P.E in San Francisco (more on that later) and trying to finish up patterns in my East vs. West series. I'm hoping to sew them into lovely totes for the holidays!

I've also been busy creating work for contests lately! Including: They Draw and Cook's Holiday Recipe contest! This is a blog I've recently stared following and has become a fast favorite. They feature recipes from artists all over the world! Their contest will feature favorite holiday food recipes over the month of December and one will be featured each day on The Food Network, which would be great exposure! I love cooking at the holidays but I'm not sure what I should draw for this... any ideas? What are your favorite dishes to eat?

Okay well that's it for now. I'm still working on a post with favorite purchases from the Alternative Press Expo but I might lump it together with the NY Art book fair, which I'm going to check out this weekend! Also the YOSHITOMO NARA show! If your in NY and want to catch up, come by the Art book fair! (It's free!)