All done! 8 x 10 inches, all Prismacolor colored pencils, on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press paper.
Its officially Summer now, so I guess its fitting that I drew something HOT to kick off the season.
In
the last post I did some work in progress shots of these. I did end up using some Prismacolor Indigo for the darkest darks. These got very burnished and slick by the end, which is OK. Sometimes I leave things kind of 'grainy', and sometimes I burnish. It just depends on what I'm drawing. These needed that waxy finish, so they needed to 'go there'.
I'm not a big chili pepper (or any kind of hot pepper) person, at all, but I do like chili pepper flakes in some dishes, and also dab a bit of the chili sauce on my food in a Chinese restaurant (avoiding the actual seeds though!). One of my favorite dishes is pasta with broccoli rabe, anchovies, olive oil, chili flakes, black pepper and parmesiano reggiano cheese. Chili pepper is good for you, they say - boosts your immune system or something.
I'll make prints for the shop in the next few days. I think these would be fun, framed up on a kitchen wall, yes?
I saw this giant molasses cookie in the store the other day and let out a little gasp.
When I was a kid, we'd walk over to Heintz Bakery in
Country Club Center * to get treats. They had these gigantic cookies (to a kid's eyes, anyway), and it was always exciting to get to choose one from the display case, then the have the nice bakery lady in her bakery lady uniform reach over the counter to hand it to me, wrapped in its little piece of tissue. They had sugar cookies with scalloped edges, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and molasses.
I just had to draw this. And I decided to make it one of my 'architectural food' pieces since I haven't done one for a while. Its a sort of odd thing to do a side and section view of, but then I thought, why not? The inside has a wonderful rich, dense section where all the molasses kind of gels together. These are sprinkled all over the top with white sugar. They are just sugar bombs, pretty much. But they smell heavenly, and are delicious.
I also scanned it as I went, so you can see how it developed.
The drawing is 8' x 10", on Fabriano Artistico paper. I used almost all Caran d'ache Pablo colored pencils on it, with one layer of Polychromos, and wee bit of white gouache for the sugar at the end.
I like to establish the pattern on something like this, then work into it with more details.
At this stage it looked like one of those chocolate cookies with the powdered sugar on top.
Here it looks like a toll house, without the chocolate chips.
Here it looks like peanut butter.
Crumbs! There are always crumbs.
This is the layer where I added some Polychromo Bistre.
And here I dabbed some white gouache on for the sugar. All done!
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The yard is in full swing now. I noticed today that all my white flowers are in bloom. Not sure if that means anything, but thought I'd take a few (blurry) pics for posterity.
The magnolia has some new flowers, but they're all so high up, I can't get a good photo. You'll just have to take my word for it that that white bit in there is a lovely magnolia flower.
My little miniature rose struggles valiantly in this heat. It lived in a nice foggy yard in San Francisco for many years, so now I have it nestled in with some other green things to help keep it sheltered, and try to remember to mist it often.
And gardenias! They smell so wonderful. I don't think this little guy bloomed last year, so I was so happy to see flowers on it today.
Phyllo, looking three sheets to the wind, helping me examine a magnolia cone.
These things are so cool, but not so cool to step on on the lawn. Its a wonder I haven't broken an ankle stumbling over these.
I'm itching to get out my watercolors. I think some picture book art is on the horizon next . . .
More food and houses!
I just can't seem to resist a nice pastry. This is a little Svenhard's Berry Horn. They come individually wrapped in cello, in an assorted mix. Of course I picked the most colorful one to draw (there are also Cheese Horns, Raisin Snails, Cinnamon Rolls, and Breakfast Claws). I'm fascinated by the names of these things.
Berry Horn 8" x 8" (20.32 x 20.32 cm)
Polychromo colored pencils on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press paper
When I was a kid my parents loved to go to bakeries and coffee shops, to sit at the counter with a donut and cup of coffee and chit-chat with people (this is back in the olden days, pre-internet). So I spent a lot of time with donuts and pastries (and bad, weak coffee shop coffee, which I still abhor).
One time I ordered "a coconut donut", and the waitress brought a "Coke and a donut". Well, that became a 'thing', and I ordered that every time to see what I'd get, until I wore that joke out.
I did this drawing about 2 times larger than life. Prints and the original are in my
etsy shop.
I also just finished another house portrait commission. This one is black and white, which I love doing.
Most people do pen and ink for black and white work, but I love using my black pencils. Its a kind of softer look.
I'm using the same technique I always do, but I'm noticing it comes out looking a little different with this new paper (Fabriano Artistico Hot Press) than other work I've done with Stonehenge. Gradations are a little smoother, and less grainy. I'm liking it!
I've updated my
etsy shop listings for house portrait commissions, with the new samples, and a slight adjustment in prices. As always, if you have a custom size or shape that I don't have listed, or would like to add people, or do multiple buildings in one portrait, I'm happy to do that for you. Please email me or send me a 'convo' on etsy and we can talk about what you'd like.
I'm back to my old drawing self, after a couple of detours.
First up is a newly completed house portrait, of a residence in San Francisco.
I did this one with Polychromo colored pencils on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper. WOW WOW WOW I LOVE THIS PAPER!!!!!!!
There are so many papers to choose from to work on, and I've heard about this one before, but for whatever reason never ordered any to try. I have a draw full of other papers - lots and lots of pads of Stonehenge (which I still love), other watercolor papers, hot press and cold press, watercolor blocks, different sizes, colors, you name it, as well as a ton of illustration board.
Well this one wins. Its 'crisper' than Stonehenge, and takes a million layers with no complaining. Its just gorgeous stuff, and I couldn't be happier with it.
Before I did the house above, I did a couple of little circus animal cookies, just for fun. These were Polychromos and Pablos on Stonehenge.
The first one is a camel, and I'm pretty sure the second one is a lion. These cookies fascinate me - they are just the weirdest little things. The cookies themselves are nice, and then they cover them is this sickeningly sweet frosting and the little doohickies (there's a name for those that's escaping me at the moment). These come in white and pink frosting, and they taste the same, but the pink ones make a better picture.
I actually laid out every cookie in the bag, and organized them by 'animal'. I considered doing a huge drawing of every cookie in the bag, including all the broken bits and stray round thingies. I thought documenting them like that would be a cool 'art piece'. And it would. Then I decided I didn't want to make that my life's work, and just drew these two instead.
