Hostess Cupcake

How could I not draw one of these? 

5.5" x 4.5"-ish on 8"x 8" Stonehenge paper

If you don't know, its a Hostess Cupcake. Its an iconic American snack food. We all remember eating these as kids. And recently, Hostess announced they were going out of business. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So there was a run on these at the stores, and I managed to get the last package at my local grocer's. 

I have a fond memory of touring the Wonder / Hostess plant here on a school field trip in about the second grade. The place smelled so wonderful! And we were all given a wee tiny little loaf of freshly baked Wonder Bread to take with us. I always loved driving by the place, rolling down the windows to catch that heavenly freshly-baked scent. But now, alas, its quiet and empty and there are no more fresh bread smells. Very sad. Very sad indeed.

So I drew a cupcake for posterity. (I also have a loaf of Wonder Bread and some other goodies in the freezer that may become drawings as well, we'll see.)

I scanned this a few times along the way as I was drawing it, so you can see how it developed.

I started with Coloursofts - this was a layer of Brown Earth.

Then I added more browns, and a layer of Loganberry.

The icing is Polychromo Bistre, Cream, and Ivory.

Then a layer of my beloved Polychromo Caput Mortuum. I love love love that color!
And more of the same on the icing.

To finish off the top I added some PC Sepia and Burnt Sienna.

The icing just got "more".

The cupcake itself was a combination of all the already mentioned colors, just done to look like cake instead of frosting.

I'm not really a fan of burnishing, just because once you 'go there' there is no turning back. And doing a lot of it can hurt your hand (well, mine, anyway). But to get the frosting to look really smooth, I had to burnish a bit. Then the rest of it had to get burnished as well, just so it all looked the same. So this piece was pretty fussy, but it was still a lot of fun to do.

I have prints in my etsy shop.

Not sure what's next - maybe a Twinkie? All I could get on that last day were chocolate cream ones, not the white gooey ones, so I'm dithering about whether to do them or not. Wait, I think I have some Ho-Hos ...

More cheese

I'm really in a cheese mood lately. Not sure why, but its been fun.

This is a Hennings Cranberry Chipolte Cheddar. Wow! Imagine biting into a piece of cheese, and having it be a little sweet, then *kapow!* hot right after that. Did you ever have that Halapeno Jelly over Cream Cheese dip/spread that used to be really popular (maybe it still is, I don't know). Its kind of like that. Except different.

What really attracted me to this (before I'd tasted it) was the beautiful rind. I have my suspicions about this though - although the cheese was labeled as being Hennings, the rind in no way looks to be anything about Hennings. Right? You can't get "Hennings" out of what cryptic bits are stenciled there.

There's no doubt its cranberry chipolte cheddar. None. And Hennings does make a cranberry chipotle cheddar. But as for the actual maker of this piece? Not too sure. The person who labeled this may have goofed. I guess it doesn't really matter, and may just have to remain a mystery.

I had fun building up the marble-y bits of stuff with colored pencils. This was done with Coloursofts on Stonehenge paper. Its 8 x 10 inches.

The original and prints are available in the shop.

And now its onto something else ...

Cracking good cheese *

In the last two posts I was talking about all the work I have / want to do with cat art and architectural renderings. And then what do I do? Draw cheese.

(please click this to see it full size)

These are Parmigiano Reggiano rinds. Aren't they lovely? The cheese itself is probably my favorite. I grew up on that powdery stuff in the green can that most Americans eat because they don't know any better. It wasn't until I moved to San Francisco and was exposed to all good things that I discovered this food of the gods.

You should have seen me at Whole Foods when I found these in a little tub. You can buy the cheese shaved, or grated, or in whole chunks of various weights and sizes. But this was the first time I'd ever seen rinds for sale. Most (normal) people use these to flavor stews or soups or sauces, but of course I immediately thought of a drawing! (And then I stood there and looked at all the little tubs, picking each one up and turning it around, trying to get a good look at exactly what was inside, to see which one had the best pieces. I do this with the produce too, and always wonder what the people on the security cameras are thinking as they watch me.)

This drawing is 8 x 10 inches (20.32 x 25.4 cm) on Stonehenge paper. I used Polychromo and Coloursoft colored pencils. Mostly Coloursofts, because the soft leads helped me build up the slightly grainy texture I was going for. A nice Caput Mortuum Polychromo did most of the work for the lettering. All in all I used a dozen different colored pencils to render this.

I'll have the original and prints available in my etsy shop soon.

I found this interesting article about the rinds and all the info that's stamped on the cheese.

* what is cracking good cheese ?

* * * * * *

Downton Abbey is back!! (here in the US, anyway) I'm reading The Real Life Downton Abbey right now, which is all about how people really lived back in Downton times, both above and below stairs. It goes into detail about rules, duties, salaries and lots of other nitty gritty details. I'm loving it.

Meow!

I was surprised and delighted to be informed that my kitties (or drawings of them) had won me the illustrious "Moose" award! What an honor. I've admired Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark blog for a long time, and to be singled out for an award by her is high praise indeed!

(please click on these to see them bigger, or better yet, click the link to go to the blog itself)

She suggests I do more, art-wise, with my cats. Well, you know what? I am. I actually do have a genius idea in the works, but you know how these things go - they can take time. I already have a domain and blog, and have even considered trademarking it all. But I've been keeping it under wraps until its 'ready'. Guess this might be a sign from the Artiverse (I just made that up - its like Universe, only with Art - OK, you got that) to get going on it. 

So it looks like to going to be very busy year for me, if I put my money where my mouth is and do everything on my work 'to-do' list! 

And so what have I been doing the past couple of days? Knitting. I've been feeling just a skoshe under the weather, just slightly off and tired and chilly and tired and slow - and tired. Knitting is a good prescription for that I've found. I made some new cowls and a scarf, and am doing up some fingerless gloves, which is a new thing for me. I also found some perfect clear bins to store yarn in, so did a bit of organizing, which feels really good.

Its very cold and frosty here, but clear. I've been covering plants at night, and wearing my shawl a lot. The kitties have been extra snuggly, and every afternoon they squabble over who gets the 'good sun window'. 

I hope all of you are having a nice start to 2013, and that the year unfolds well for everyone!