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January 2012

November 2011

Savoy Cabbage, A Sketch in Layers

A trip to the produce department in the autumn is a feast for the artist's eyes, isn't it? Among the predominantly purple veggies I bought a couple of weeks ago was a gorgeous savoy cabbage. I decided to render it in two layers: a fine line contour drawing and a loose watercolor layer. Here are both the parts, and then, the combined image.

Cabbageline600 Colorcabbagesmall

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the line drawing I used a 000 tech pen. After placing the line drawing on my light table, I put a piece of 90 lb. watercolor paper over the drawing and loosely painted the cabbage which was perched nearby. I scanned both renderings and combined them into one image in PhotoShop.

BlogCombo
To see a photo of the purple vegetable collection, including this Savoy cabbage, please click here.





Designing for a Custom Cookie Package

A friend told me about "Mother's Milk Cookies" when I was chatting with her about my new granddaughter Ada and her beautiful mom, my daughter-in-law Amy. No, the cookies do not have mother's milk in them. They have ingredients that enhance milk production for busy new moms. And all new moms are busy.

There are commercial mother's milk cookies, but I wanted to make some so that I could put the best possible ingredients in them myself. After finding numerous recipes online, I selected one. Whole grains, brewer's yeast, and ground flax seed mingle with the organic butter and free trade chocolate chips in these tasty treats. Of course, I had to design a label, too:

Label combosm Cookie packages

For the artwork, I used a pointed pen for the lettering and little border. After scanning it in as a TIFF file in PhotoShop, I colored the motifs digitally. In InDesign I incorporated the list of ingredients, printed the finished label out on laser labels and wrapped each cookie in a natural waxed paper baggie. Frozen, these pop into a professional mom's briefcase and nourish both mom and baby when snacktime arises!