And the finished product...

Pleased as punch with this one. I rediscovered "shading". It's amazing what we carry with us from our teachers. The bad as well as the good. The fact that I barely ever create values with pencil. It's a left over from my high school art teacher turning down her nose at my natural style of drawing. Never too late for some teenage rebellion! I'm looking forward to exploring it.

Christmas Card

I should just start calling this my Holiday Drawing Blog. Here's the new one in progress.

My version of giving back

Looking back, I think one thing that my year lacked was enough volunteerism. The economy took a dive, my concentration on pounding the pavement to compensate doubled and giving back to my community suffered.

I hope to be able to find a better balance in 09 ( yikes! 09 already).
But in the mean time I volunteered to do the program for my church, Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken, Christmas pageant. I have fond memories of my starring role as unnamed head angel at my childhood parish back in RI...and not so fond memories of being passed over as Mary not one but TWO years in a row.
I guess that's what happens when your mothers not in charge of the show.
I joke, I joke! Sort off. :)

Here's the program cover in progress.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy this recipe from the New York Times I fudged with to make a little more user friendly. For those of us that do not have time to make our own puff pastry.

Studies in Light and Dark

Just playing around with photoshop filters. The bottom version has the watercolor filter on it... which I found dorkily funny since I did the piece in watercolors. Ah, well. You had to be there.

Ode to lighting

These are some inspiration art from Pixars Ratatouille by way of a fan site http://www.theartofpixar.com
Some artists have a natural knack of dramatic lighting...and I am so not one of them. I definitely want to work on some lighting pieces in the future, in my own Erica style.

Happy Halloween!

Funny how illustrations just take a life of their own. This is the final product of the comp from below. What's the same you ask? The color scheme. That's about it!

The background came out so well that I decided to add trees in the back instead of stars. I wanted to include my recipe for pumpkin bread which made me ditch the pumpkins. The witch just didn't look right and thus bats were added!

If you want the final recipe card just drop me a line and I would be glad to send it to you. Hope you have a happy Halloween!

Halloween Card... thinking it through

I know what the line work is...that's never the problem. But the color? Ugh! My drawing style is naturally so tight. I always want to get more life into it. And I especially would like to get some dramatic lighting. Just trying to think it through with some marker mock ups. We'll see what happens.

Illustration Friday

My first submission to illustration fridays. In the process of builing my web site I realized that I really need new work! The theme this week was strings. A flapper dress is the first thing that popped into my head.... I am very shopping deprived right now. <>

My very nice and very photogenic room mate has been nice enough to model for my soon to be up and running Etsy store. This scarf is one of a few vintage items I'll have in the store. I'm currently developing my jewelry line. I thought three years of designing costume jewelry would get the design bug out of my system. Apparently not. More to come!

Spring fever has definitely struck. Most days I'm stuck in the house doing work so enjoying the weather is out for now. I would plant some flowers but I don't even have the option of a flower box in my fourth floor walk up so that's out. And I could indulge in the exhilaration of a spring fling but I'm not seeing any viable options these days so that is completely and might I add, damn annoyingly, out. But who needs a spring fling when you have spring vegetables like artichokes! OK, awkward bridge to a new subject. Spring time vegetables are exciting though. Buh-bye root vegetable and winter starchiness, hello crisp greenness. I thought I would share my easy stuffed artichoke recipe.

Here is what you will need-
1 onion diced
1/2 a red pepper diced
1 lemon ( juice and zest)
1 medium baguette cut into 1" cubes ( day old is great, if not a fresh one is fine)
1 egg
1/2 cup grated peccerino romano
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
2 artichokes

Everyone seems to be fearful of using and preparing fresh artichokes
but once you get the hang of it, you're going to be an artichoke preparing fiend. Here's a link to show you the basics.
After you have trimmed and de-choked chokes, put them in a pan of boiling salted water. Make sure the pan is large enough that the artichokes are fully submerged in the water. You can throw and a sliced lemon if you like but it's not necessary. Let artichokes
boil for 30 minutes.
Take artichokes gently out of pan and let cool.
While cooling, saute diced onion in olive in large saute pan until soft. Then add diced pepper, salt and pepper to taste and red pepper flakes. Cook until soft. Remove pan from heat and let cool. Add diced bread, pecerino romano, juice and zest of the lemon and egg. Combine all thoroughly and gently. Salt and pepper to taste again.
Take the artichokes that you have set aside and using a spoon, gently stuff the center on the artichokes with the stuffing.
Place artichokes in oven safe dish. Drizzle top with addition olive oil or cheese ( optional). Place in preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.
As Julia Child would say, bon appetit!
Or as another favorite chef would say, bun eppeteet!

I'm developing quiet a few new projects right now PLUS trying to rediscover my "artistic voice" what ever that means. Above is me taking a sketch and developing it in photoshop. I keep reminding myself it's an experiment and not everythings a masterpices. My old comic book loving self is fighting with my need for things to look spontaneous. This really isn't doing it for me. But it's an experiment and not everythings a masterpices...she repeats to herself over and over and over.

It's a little dated but here are some of the pictures from my fun day in Boston with my good friends Ira and Shannon. We spent the day roaming Boston. The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum was amazing as always. But totally overwhelming! Ira was way more patient then Shannon and I. We were all about chatting on the benches overlooking the beautiful courtyard. If you're in Boston check it out. It right by the MFA. Afterwards we roamed around Harvard Square, got the best hot chocolate and pretended to shop with my imaginary money. We capped the night with Ethiopian food ( I always love checking one more nationalities food off my list).

BUT on the walk home we ran in to one of my Boston must go to places! The Porter Exchange is a mini mall of all Japanese restaurants and stores. As you walk through this maze you never know what you'll find. The have ramen shops, sushi bars, bubble teas and sweet shops. I love it.
Almost as much as I love foreign grocery stores!!! Above are some of our favorite finds.

Ever wonder how chic Asian boys roaming around NY get those straight out of an anime flick hair? Well see above. And they really are straight out of anime flick. No real models!! Actual anime illustrations! That's more faith then I think I could put drawing.

Ira's favorite was the freeze dried Japanese "Vermont curry"...because he's from Vermont and pretty sure that they don't have freeze dried curry there.

And the best is last. Not because of the picture but because of what that little hair product bottle says on it. "Mandom" is apparently for all your "man" hair needs. But ever better is what it says below that-

"Everyone loves a lover. Every one loves Mandom. Man o'man that's a Mandom!"

Uhm... what? Makes no sense what so ever. Did we laugh until I cried? You betcha.

The cherry on the cake? It was Anime Con in Boston that weekend. The whole mall was flooded with anime geeks in all their costumes glory. And yes. I did go a little link crazy with this post.

My friends Jess and Jana are taking their love of cupcakes to a new level. The Cupcakery is their new venture specializing in creative and delicious cupcakes. And I think they are going to do marvelously. Above is the new logo I created for them and a picture of the girls during the first day of recipe testing. I gladly played guinea pig in ultimate show down between butter based versus shortening based batter. The winner? For looks shortening, for taste butter. And back the drawing board they went. I'll be working on illustration for their website too so check back for some more sweets inspired art.

The second in the portrait series ( woo-hoo, actually following through ). Totally inspired by Tinsley Mortimer, but just the hair. Should be interesting...

I am a magazine fanatic. My dream is a to have filing cabinet to catalog all my finds. Sad? Yes. But when you live in small space having the room for the "luxury" of a filing cabinet is a rarity. Hey, no judgements! Some people have shoes I have...shoes and filing cabinets. But one of the perks of working in the fashion industry is I HAVE to read magazines. And then hoard them until they are years out of date and filled with dust. But before that point, I do something I find completely satisfying. Before I dare even read the magazine I go thought it page by page throwing out everything I don't need. Really awful perfume sample, the 27 magazine subscription forms in any given issue, what ever "look at me aren't I gorgeous, I've put myself in my own ad again" Tom Form campaign that happens to be plaguing us that season. It cuts the issue in half, down my 3/4 Th's if you get Vogue on the right month. Easier to transport and easier to concentrate on the important stuff. Like whatever luxury item I will be trying to find my own way to rip off at the thrift store that month.

Clamato

Oh, I know. You're stunned. That can does say Beer and Clamato on it. In case anyone was wondering Clamato is Bloody Mary Mix and clam juice. Tasty.
When I was out in California visiting my sister and future brother-in-law I spotted this gem in their grocery store. I used my years of fashion retailing experience to take this covert picture. Really, once you've been thrown out of one store the fear is gone!
Wo-hoo! I still think I might be afraid of this though.

Board and Studio is where it all begins, or at least it does for me. 4 years of art school and one TOTALLY disjointed portfolio later I asked one of my friends "where is my style?!".
Norman Rockwell had realistic quirky americana, George Petty had his sassy Petty girls, and Peter De Seve... well, Peter De Seve is just freaking awesome ( as demonstrated by those few months senior year shamelessly trying to rip off his style). My friend looked at me and said "it's not that you don't have good influences it's that you try to do them all at the same time!". Sure enough, looking at the bulletin board above my studio desk was a mess of influences, recipes, project ideas, & a picture of the most perfect Frye Boots ( I have still yet to buy).

Let's see if we can sort out some of those ideas here.

Above: First in a series of paintings (?hopefully?) "Gingham & Yellow".