Elvis

C is for Congratulations

T is for Thank You

H is for Happy Birthday

Here's a first crack at the second card in the set I'm making.

Gnocchi with white bean cashew cream

I made some gnocchi with fresh rosemary and scallions, using a recipe from You Won't Believe It's Vegan. You absolutely don't need to use eggs or cheese when making gnocchi! These turned out tender, chewy, and flavorful, and didn't have any problems with falling apart or sticking to one another. I think I used 80% spelt flour and 20% all-purpose white flour, and small white potatoes instead of big russets. I'll definitely be making these again.

I soaked about 3/4 cup of raw cashews in water for 6 hours, then put them in the food processor with a cup or so of white beans, a couple tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice, a dash of garlic powder, and some salt and pepper. I blended the sauce a lot longer than I usually would for a cashew ricotta, and the resulting sauce ended up being deliciously creamy and rich-tasting.

I served the gnocchi on a bed of lightly sauteed kale from Front Door Organics, and topped the dish off with a sundried tomato/artichoke/mushroom tapenade. Yum! (If I do say so myself)

Card series

The other night when I was falling asleep, I started imagining a themed series of cards. This is the first one. The front says "M is for" and the inside says "missing you." The series will all be along these lines. Coming up: Thank you, Happy Birthday, Sorry. Let me know if there are other categories you'd want to buy!

Hope these'll be available soonish. I'll post an update when they're done.

Profile

I drew this based on a photo from Flickr's commons collection.

Lonely bear

Basketball player

Shorpy Face

Here's another face inspired by a haunting photo on Shorpy.

Banana sour cream bundt cake

I made this recipe from the Vegan Yum Yum blog (Lauren Ulm, the 25 year-old (!) phenom of a chef and author, now has a cookbook out). Check it out if you haven't visited before. Great recipes and beautiful food photography.

The cake turned out well (very moist and flavorful), but I don't know if I'll make it again, since the Tofutti vegan sour cream I used had hydrogenated fats in it, and I generally try to avoid them. I normally don't post food creations if I didn't originate or significantly modify the recipes myself, but I'm making an exception because this one was tasty and I took a picture of it.

Multiethnic meal

For dinner the other night, I made a multiethnic mishmash for dinner: angel hair pasta with fresh tomatoes and a homemade sauce, crepes with asparagus and vegan Hollandaise sauce, and a tamale (there were two left in the freezer from the last time I made them). There's also a salad on the table with a balsamic vinaigrette, and another creamy cashew-based sauce that was left over from making lasagne a few nights earlier.

Drawing class

I started a new once-a-week drawing class at the Toronto School of Art last week. Today was our first day with a model. I'm not used to drawing on such a large scale - most of my sketches are five inches across, if not smaller. This paper is two feet wide and three feet tall. I never use charcoal or newsprint, either (I hate the dry feeling of both), so I think the class is good for getting me out of my comfort zone and making me do things I'm not used to doing. It's been fun so far!

The proportions are a bit off in this drawing, but I kind of like how it all turned out.

Update on clock design

I decided to see if I could upload my clock monster image onto Cafepress, so it's now available to any interested parties. I haven't ordered one myself, so I haven't actually seen the finished product in person yet.

You can visit the Cafepress shop page here. I only have a small number of other items up, which I set up a couple of years ago. I hope to create some new designs and will post updates when I have new items go up.

Shampoo monster

I finally figured out how to use opacity masks to create textures in Illustrator. Yay! This is an image of a "shampoo monster."

You're the one

Girl in a pink dress

Pawpaw

I got a great book from the library called Edible: An illustrated guide to the world's food plants. It's full of intriguing-sounding fruits and vegetables, many of which I've never heard of. I drew this image with Prismacolor pencils based on a picture from the book.

This Pennsylvanian blog entry describes the fruit a little bit. Yum! Have any of you tried these? They're different from papayas, though some people call papayas "pawpaws."

Skinny bearded guy

I'm not sure what this guy's story is. I drew him while watching Lost, since I couldn't really watch the show without feeling nauseated (as mentioned in my post from a couple days ago). Boo!

Old Photograph

Today on my way to the grocery store I stopped in at a great shop called Gadabout, which is on Queen Street East (near Leslie). In addition to lots of vintage garments, they also have a treasure trove of ephemera, from photos to greeting cards to packaging and toys. It would be easy to spend hours there. I was really taken by a particular photo of a dour little girl. It's undated and there's no indication as to who she is, but the photo studio was in Michigan. There's something so funny and charming about her pose (atop a bale of hay and leaning against a boulder) and facial expression.

Hurley

Tonight we finally started watching season 5 of Lost on DVD. Unfortunately, this season seems to be shot using a lot more handheld camera movement than the previous four seasons, so I could barely watch. Sigh. I sat and sketched instead. This little head was based on Hurley (Jorge Garcia).

King Charles II

This drawing was modeled after an image I saw at the Gardiner Museum on an earthenware puzzle jug that was created in 1660 to commemorate King Charles II. The original was a little wonkier (this one is still pretty wonky) but I loved the stylized simplicity.

Itty Bitty Art - 4

Here's my last drawing for the Itty Bitty Art sale. I added some digital color to this version, but colored the original by hand.

Itty Bitty Art - 3

Here's a third drawing for the Itty Bitty Art sale. I ended up coloring the original with prismacolor pencils.

Itty Bitty Art - 2

Here's another drawing for the Itty Bitty Art sale. I added some digital color to this version.

Itty Bitty Art - 1

I created some drawings for the 2010 Itty Bitty Art sale. It's a fun fundraiser for PS#1 Pluralistic School in Santa Monica.

Many different contributors create and donate postcard-sized works of art, which will each be sold for $35 each on a first-come first-serve basis at their sale on February 7. The artists' names are kept hidden until after the purchase is made, so bidders only find out afterward whether the art they bought was created by a famous artist, musician, actor, or amateur.

This is part of a drawing I began while waiting at the airport to travel back to Toronto. I'll post the others as well.

Santa

It's a little late for Christmas, but here's a drawing of Santa Claus.

Snowman

Happy winter!

Childhood chair - progress

I added a first coat of blue onto the legs of the chair. I'm going to paint stars on it in the style of Tomie dePaola, which you can see below on the back cover of Bill & Pete.

Childhood chair - Mog

This is from another favorite but perhaps lesser-known book from my childhood. Behold Mog, the Forgetful Cat.

Childhood chair - Peony

This detail from the chair represents Peony, from the wonderful book Peony's Rainbow. It was written and illustrated by Martha Weston, whom we miss.

Childhood chair

Happy New Year! I started this project several years ago, but I'd really like to finish it before too long. I found a chair at the Mt. Carmel thrift shop in Mill Valley for about $5 and decided I wanted to paint it. I chose to create an homage to some of my favorite books from my early years. Perhaps my New Year's resolution should be to finish it in 2010.

Can you spot any of your favorite characters or books? The better known books represented here are Gorky Rises, In the Night Kitchen, Ferdinand, Curious George, Fox in Socks (Fox hasn't been drawn yet but you can see the bush on the right and the hill he'll be walking up), and one of the Richard Scarry books.