Thursday, April 5, 2012

sugar shock

doughnuts

nanaimo bars

basil-lemon cupcakes

pistachio-almond cupcakes

chocolate eclair cake

When my friend Isabel suggested I do a series of etegami depicting baked goods, I was intrigued, because it was something new for me and I had no idea if I could do it. I found inspiration by browsing through her food photos (she's a gifted cook). It turns out baked goods are kind of hard to paint, partly because everything tends to be in shades of brown. I did my best, but failed to do justice to the food that modeled for me. Of course, Etegami is not about perfection; it's about having fun and making other people happy. So I'm okay with the results. Painting the baked goods is a lot less fattening than eating it, but my stomach did growl a lot. ;p

14 comments:

  1. I am overwhelmed by this post. Is there anything you can't do? This is inspirational. I can just imagine a restaurant menu designed by you. Makes me wish I had a restaurant! (No way in hell)

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    1. You remind me that I was often hired to translate restaurant menus back before I retired from industrial/commercial translating. I love to cook, and know quite a bit about ingredients and cooking methods, so I really enjoyed jobs like that. Maybe someday I'll be asked to illustrate a menu? How fun to imagine it!

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  2. Never did brown look so delicious not even in the seventies! :)

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  3. You did a great job Debbie! What is the chop on the second one? And, what do you write with? Now I'm dying for a sweet!! Margie

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    1. @Margie, I used my stone-carved DE-BI chop written in the katakana form (which is often used for names and words of foreign origin). It also has some flower petals carved into it. It was carved for me by a semi-professional friend decades ago.

      The outlines of these etegami were all done with sumi ink and a bamboo quill pen. You can get the same effect with a bamboo skewer or toothpick dipped in sumi, though you have to dip more often than with the quill pen.

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  4. I love what you did with the donuts... and with all of them, for that matter. Yummy!

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  5. Oh gees. I am salivating. I am longing for doughnuts now and it is past midnight here!!! This post just increased my blood glucose level. Hahaha. Beautiful illustrations.

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  6. Bravo for the illustrations, they're very mouth watering! I'll go to my patissier to buy the one with a taste of heaven ...

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  7. My goodness, what a delicious selection! If you have a moment Debbie - would you be able to tell me what the Japanese words in this post http://carolinesstudio.blogspot.com/2012/04/okiagari-koboshi-japanese-good-luck.htmlon my blog mean - I'd be really grateful for you input!

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    1. You've probably seen it by now, but I left an explanation on your blog for you. :)

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  8. i prefer an illustration over photography anytime! especially one with this much style and energy. great perspective...love the basil cupcakes!

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  9. Another beautiful collection :) Bravo!

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  10. Oooh nanaimo bars, 懐かしい! So hard to find all the ingredients in this country though, my thighs thank Japan for that.

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