Backlog

It's been a while, guys. Circumstances have been playing pretty roughshod with my work output. I finished these tokens in between hectic commutes and phone calls and time spent waiting for the train (circumstances play rougher with you when you don't know how to drive, it seems). Hopefully things will be smoother here on out.

Ebay earrings

I found these earrings a few months ago on Ebay and snatched them up. Since they're clip-ons I figured I would sell them, but they're so beautifully made that I don't think I want to part with them.

fox apples

This is the drawing I did a few days ago, scanned and cleaned-up for your delectation.

There are a number of Korean idioms that use the word "fox" to express a trickster-like juxtaposition or quality of the unexpected. Rain on a sunny day is called "fox rain" (another term for it, which I like even more, is "tiger's wedding"), for example. I've been playing with the term in my sketchbook and it's been pretty fruitful (no pun intended) (just kidding I totally did that on purpose oh yeah).

Look forward to more!

Little fried things and hummus soup.

The tuberous things on the left are fried sunchokes and on the right are a couple squash blossoms from my garden. My method for frying most root veggies these days has been to chop or slice them into roughly uniform pieces (roughly being the key word here) and put them in a pan of cold oil. For some reason - and I'm sure Harold McGee has said plenty on the topic already - frying them by bringing them up to heat causes a lot less risk of splatter and smoke, and you don't have to worry about monitoring the temperature of the frying oil. The results were fantastic! The sunchokes were perfectly crisp with toothsome, creamy centers. They stuck in our teeth in the most delightful way. The squash blossoms were really tender and juicy, and the vegan breading I made (seasoned flour and garlic and ginger-steeped soy milk) was flavorful without overpowering the flavor of the flower.


I soaked and cooked up a bunch of dried chickpeas, intending to use them for mock tuna sandwiches, but I forgot about them for several days and decided to instead use them up in one go by making this soup. It's essentially the same ingredient list as hummus, plus lots of caramelized onions and vegetable broth (I used Better than Bouillon's No Chicken base, which is vegan but hits a lot of the same flavor notes as a classic chicken stock, with plenty of water and a little white wine). You could add a little cream, but we chose not to in order to keep our menu vegan for the night. I added some halved cherry tomatoes and basil from my garden, a generous drizzle of olive oil, and paprika. I bet it would be even better with sumac; next time!

as yet untitled, process photos

Rough pencil sketch.


More definite layout in pencil with beginning of the inking process.


Inked! Gonna lay in the color tomorrow I think it's bedtime for me now.

sketchbook pages from class

Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (2010 Version)

I went over to a friend's apartment with my good buddy Kate to plan out a collaborative project, and while we were there we caught some of the MTV Video Music Awards. It's been years since I watched MTV or anything associated and the spectacle of it totally won me over. Pop music: I like it now! After years of adolescent devotion to punk rock and The Mountain Goats who knew I had it in me!

But one performance stood head and shoulders above the rest for me. Florence and the Machine - an artist I had only heard of vaguely before tonight - performed "Dog Days Are Over" and it TOTALLY ROCKED. This is the music video. Enjoy!

larissa, short pose

Acrylic on paper, 24" by 18".

another conceptual sketch

"Cougar ii"
White ink on Strathmore paper

I was kind of sloppy with this one. I kicked myself over the anatomy once I finished and got a good look at it (note: go with instincts and my own anatomical knowledge over the soft porn-y reference images) but I reminded myself that this is just the first phase. Getting too hung up on the rough draft is counterproductive.

new drawing

"Cougar," white ink on Strathmore paper.

I've been gathering lots of reference imagery on South Korean folklore and traditional shamanistic ritual and this quick freehand drawing is the first of what I anticipate to be many conceptual exercises.

late plantings: the first harvest and some roughs

It seems like I'm spending this summer playing a little catch-up. I've been working on a few different sets of drawings, some for my personal work and some for the Etsy shops I've put on hiatus. I'm planning on splitting my Etsy work into two shops, one which I have yet to open: Pen and Paper will transition to DIY printable stationary and gifts in PDF form, and the new shop - Ink and Ginger - will feature my silhouette and drawing work.



Here are a couple pencil layouts for the "Coney Island" drawings, based on Depression-era sideshow attractions.

Meanwhile, my garden is finally delivering some goods despite a late planting!



It's a modest harvest, but enough to shine in tonight's dinner. That's red shiso on the left, and the first cherry belle radish (which I picked a little prematurely) on the right. I dressed both of them in a mixture of toasted sesame oil, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper and served it with some freshly cooked rice and lentils.

Sadly, the seedlings I photographed in the last post all died. I think some fungus gnats got in through the screen and wiped them out. Luckily I have enough seeds for another planting but it's a bummer all the same.

sprouts

After realizing that the cheerful songbirds whose company I previously enjoyed so much probably made off with most of my surface-planted seeds (you're welcome, assholes) I decided to start some plants indoors and transplant them later. Some of them are really taking off! I planted the seeds three days ago and these are the ones that are already showing:


Chamomile. Look at how charming and tiny they are!


Arugula sprouts. These guys are coming up so strong! Seeing them indoors convinced me that the birds and squirrels got most of the seeds I planted outside. There's only one lonely plant in the entire plot when there should be a gazillion.


Iwai daikon radishes. I bought these seeds from a company that specializes in Asian vegetables, herbs, and fruit. This particular daikon is very dainty, growing up to 1" in diameter in full maturity, and is a traditional vegetable used in Japanese New Year's dishes. I'm really looking forward to harvesting lots of these. The seeds are really easy to plant and they sprout really quickly, but the nature of their harvest means I'll need to keep sprouts, um, sprouting on constant rotation to make the most of them. I'm thinking of pickling some of them to make them last longer - maybe even saving them for New Year's!


Mizuna mustard. This is really good in salads or very briefly wilted in a hot pan with some sesame oil, ginger, and garlic.

Sorry for the lack of art posts, I have some really awesome stuff to show you once I get the green light!

hazy start to summer

I've been working on a couple commissions that I can't show here, but I've also been trying to get behind this whole "summer" thing. I recently built a rather clumsy raised bed garden in the building's backyard, and Camden and I are working on installing a lot of furniture into the apartment so I can move my workspace into the second bedroom now that our room mate moved into nicer digs.


Kenyan peaberry coffee beans from Four Barrel.


Peonies from Trader Joe's along with my collection of miniature animals in the kitchen.


Nasturtium seeds soaking for a day before getting planted in my garden.

Bartleby acquaints himself with our new chair.

Yesterday afternoon I found an ad on Craigslist for this charming, plump plaid armchair and matching ottoman. It's a little threadbare on the left arm, and the cloth underneath is torn a couple inches, but for $35 I'm pretty pleased!

anthropomorphized vegetables, inked

I found this pencil sketch a couple days ago and finished it while I was house-sitting for some of Camden's relatives. The original sketch was drawn two years ago, I think, and it was funny to see how awkwardly I drew the hands. I made a few corrections and inked it in an hour or so. I'm not sure whether to color this digitally and sell it as a set of printable stationary, or color it with watercolor and sell little fine art prints. Decisions, decisions.

Sorry the top got cut off, my flatbed scanner is kind of finicky sometimes.

radio silence broken

I've been going a little crazy trying to get all my drawing assignments done early so I can visit my sister in New York in a week.

This is one of the assignments for my anatomical figure drawing class.

inked over and watercolor

I went over the drawing from a few days ago with a brush pen and watercolors.

sketchbook page 183

some recent sketchbook pages

tattoo design for maggie

Finally finished it a couple days ago.

ETA: the original jpeg I uploaded was teeny, so I tried again.

various valentines

I actually managed to get some Valentine's Day item listed this year, before all the hubbub of school started. So far the semester system has neatly lined up with all the major holidays.

Anyway, we've got framed digital prints of two new drawings, $12, and original ink and watercolor silhouettes and birdnests, $10 and $12 respectively. The drawings are ACEO sized so they are quite wee.

I've listed them all in their own section, so feel free to take a peek.