Le Petit Prince redux

A first draft cover for a book being written by prof Robert C. Brown. The text is all FPO. I wanted to play around with combining vector art (the planet) with a painted character. Ideally, I'll be able to use a similar style for all of the illustrations in the book. I think I want to give the planet more character, make it bumpier like the "Loomis" planet a few posts down. I also need to add more woodland, push the distinction between cropland and forest, and maybe add a little painted texture to the planet.

A few early sketches (+ a smiling farmer lady & a funky birthday cupcake):

Tiny bakery

Don't tell my employers, but I've been baking like a madman! Last week was another sourdough week, and while my boules turned out nicely my "seeded sour" was aesthetically lacking. The dough dried out in the fridge overnight which prevented the loaves from caramelizing properly during their time in the blazing inferno.


This week: croissants!

Co-op-y goodness

I finally got around to searching the Cities for a good figure drawing cooperative, and found one within minutes! It's in a nearby neighborhood that also happens to feature my favorite food cooperative. So: 2 hours of drawing followed by perusing aisles of turnips and quinoa! What excitement!

I arrived late to last week's session but still had fun. Most of the poses were 10-15 minutes, which was fine for getting back into the figure drawing groove. Unfortunately, my drawing for the only long pose of the evening looked like this


So I've opted not to share it.

Sourdough pizza!

I am obsessed with tasty pizza. Last week, I became so overwhelmed with the work of Peter Reinhart and Nancy Silverton that I decided to develop my wild starter (an offshoot of my mum's Ames colony) into a pizza dough. The results were unexpectedly delicious. Those busy little Twin Cities fungi and bacteria produced a crispy yet chewy crust with surprising sweetness and the slightest hint of acidic tang. Combined with a sesame-parsley pesto, it was a near-perfect pizza experience!

For all you neo-Neapolitan pizza aficionados out there, here's an ECU of the burnished crust:


as well as a bad photo of the porous, slightly transparent crumb:

Coloring book

This little image, inspired by the brilliant Mr. Loomis, needed some color. So I colored it in. The experience made me realise how long it has been since I did a proper painting with my tablet. Time to get busy!

Saucy pot

Holy smokes it's been a long time since my last sketch number. To appease the blogods, and to begin working towards new year's resolution #6, here are a couple of monsters, a cowboy (name that film!) and a bubbly little pot. I'm gearing up for a few largeish (by my standards) projects, and will post progress updates.