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!