Green food!

Painting madly, trying to get done THIS WEEKEND with the rest of the cookbook illustrations, because I have other things to do, and I need to move on! (SO many other things to do--it turns out deciding to take a trip out of the country immediately makes necessary a whole host of things I'd been putting off and now must finish before I leave!)

Today's theme is GREEN. Not on purpose, I just picked four things to paint today and they all happened to be from the same color palette. So much so, in fact, that I had to change some of the greens so that things weren't so monochromatic.

First, herbs. I have to admit to a little insecurity--I was afraid no one would be able to tell what they were for sure, so I labeled them. Ornamentally, but labeling nonetheless.

Second, olive oil! This was a request from the cookbook compiler, because she said A. there are several recipes with olive oil so I could use it anywhere, and B. "I like the reflections on the glass." Well, so do I, but they're not the easiest.

I went back to drawing with pen today, the glass reflections notwithstanding. I still got some in there, but it is harder to work around the hard line when it comes to glass.

So, what did I decide to do for my next painting? A jar of pickles! Talk about your interesting reflective challenges! Didn't quite pull it off, but got pretty close, and I love the lime green pickle "juice" color.

I have a little of the "lean to the left--lean to the right" thing going on with the olive oil and the pickles, I can see now that they are scanned and posted. Oh, well, they will be on separate pages, and besides...it gives them a bit of quirky personality! (That's what I tell myself when I can't draw a straight line: It's quirky.)

Tomorrow: Quiche (yellow), watermelon (pink and, well, yes, green) and chocolate chip cookie ingredients (none of them green). Whew!

Gingerbread Fixings

I hadn't done anything yet about paintings to go with desserts for the cookbook. One of our faves around the library for birthday celebrations is Gramercy Tavern's gingerbread as recreated and shared by Smitten Kitchen (what?! you don't know Smitten Kitchen? you're in for a treat), so I gathered a few of the ingredients--molasses, cinnamon and eggs--and painted them.

Last time I painted eggs, I did the drawing first in pen; and the thing with eggs is, if you get their shape even a smidgen off, they don't look so much like eggs as they do misshapen potatoes. So for this illustration I eschewed the pen and stuck to pencil.

It's funny--back before I took Brenda Swenson's sketch journaling workshop and started drawing almost exclusively with pen, I would draw and erase, draw and erase, draw and erase, and take forever to get it right. But since you don't have that option with pen, you have to just go for it. You have to really LOOK at what you're drawing, and do your best to put it on paper, and if you have an occasional jog where you meant to jig, well, so be it. I assumed, therefore, that when I went back to pencil, I would draw, as I did with a pen, with more confidence and less waffling. I do think I have a better chance of getting it right the first time now, but in fact, I discovered today that when I have the option of erasing and fixing, I do still take advantage. Perhaps that was good for this painting, since the eggs do look more like eggs, and the angles on the tops and lids are a bit more realistic. Also, it's easier to get the effect of see-through glass without pen lines. But I did miss having that definite outline to paint to!

Photoshop Fix

Better? I'm not the best with repainting using Photoshop...

Today's efforts

One man-made (well, nature-made but then caught, killed, and canned for convenience), one nature-made, although purposefully grown for market.

First, Charlie Tuna. The top of the can is a little wonky as to angle--I still have trouble with perspective. It's an unending fight between what my brain knows to be true (it's a circle) and what my eye sees from an angle (it's an ellipse). Brain and eye compromised a little here, so it's not quite right--in fact, now that I really see it, it kind of looks like the lid is sinking into the can! I may have to do this one over...

And, a nice bunch of organic celery. As with the broccoli from the other day, it's hard to get the layers of organic material all in there, but at this point, as long as it resembles what I intended it to be, I'm happy.