Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Habichuelas con dulce

habichuelas
This a little experiment with some textures. Inspired in large part by N8W's work, but also Dominican colmado paintings.
(Colmados are these little corner stores that sell everything (rum, beer, tomato paste, salami))

and a poster I have from Dominican artist Tony Capellan. Tony does mostly installation art. I don't usually like installations that much, but his are always cool.






For Easter, Dominicans make Habichuelas con Dulce (Beans with sweets), which is a dessert of blended beans and floating cookies. Its kind of strange, but not as strange as the "habichuelas con dulce" flavored ice cream.





Here is a recipe, courtesy of DominicanCooking.com

Habichuelas con Dulce is one of Dominican's most cherished traditions. It is prepared in Easter in large quantities and shared with relatives and neighbors.

Time: 60 Mins
Difficulty: Advanced
Serve: 6 people

Before starting to cook: Cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes. Boil with a teaspoon of salt until tender. Put the beans and the water through the blender. Strain the beans to get rid of the skin.

Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup of raisins
* 2 teaspoons of butter
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 2 cups of boiled red kidney beans
* 2 cup of water from boiling the beans
* 1/2 cup of sugar
* 1 cup of coconut milk
* 3 cups of evaporated milk
* 1/2 teaspoon of salt
* Cassava bread (may be omitted)
* 1/2 lb of sweet potatoes
* 10 cloves
* 1 cup of milk cookies (may be omitted)


Preparation:

1. Put the beans, the coconut milk and half the milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the milk, sugar, raisins and sweet potatoes and let boil medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir regularly to avoid sticking. Add the rest of the ingredients and boil to the desired consistency.
2. Spread butter on the cassava bread, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven until it turns golden brown.
3. Serve the beans chilled with the cassava on the side. Put cookies on top of the beans.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Illustration Friday: Peace



No time to do a new illustration right now, so this is an old one I did for Carleton College, about the Peace Corps.

This is sort of a self-portrait as I was an Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1993-1995. I lived in a town on the coast called Sabana de la Mar. If anyone wants any advice on joining the Peace Corps, email me.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

illustration friday: orange

orange
I did this a few months ago. This poster works better if you say it in your best Pepe Lepew accent.


I just got a book about Raymond Savignac.
It inspired me to do a little poster for oranges. I'm trying out some new custom brushes in photoshop too.

Creatures Great and Small

01_cover_lion.jpg
I got this book mostly for the textures, but the poems are pretty good too. In doing a little research on the illustrator, Marcello Minale, I found he was stabbed to death in 2001. From the BBC:
Former Olympic rower and renowned designer, Marcello Minale, 58, died after being stabbed following an argument on Saturday in the car park of the Montauroux rowing club in southern France.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1097133.stm

Click the camel to see the whole set on flickr

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Illustration Friday: Help

Illustration Friday: Help

The rhino has a symbiotic relationship with oxpeckers, also called tick birds. In Swahili the tick bird is named "askari wa kifaru," meaning "the rhino's guard." The bird eats ticks it finds on the rhino and noisily warns of danger. Although the birds also eat blood from sores on the rhino's skin and thus obstruct healing, they are still tolerated.

I realized after I posted this, that the colors on the rhino remind me of Mr. Bubble.

Thank you for your comments.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Illustration Friday: Mask

Illustration Friday: Mask
I sketched out this raccoon last week before I knew the theme this week was "mask." So it must've been some sort of cosmic unconsciousness.

As a bonus this week, here is the original sketch. Thanks for all your comments.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Illustration Friday: Might

might_flat

For some reason when I heard the theme was "might," the first thing I thought of was how you always hear how ants can lift 10 times their body weight. In my quick internets research, I found out ants strength is overstated, but I already had my idea.

I wanted to experiment with limited color here. I was inspired by some colors in an old 60s letter/bill holder that I have. I also was inspired by some old cookbooks I have, that use just black and one color. I like how they use the solid color to describe the shapes, and then use interior black for details.

Here is a pic of the bill holder that inspired the color. Click it for the larger size and some other close-ups on my flickr too:
Retro Letter Bill Holder

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Blog is Dead

Your Blog is Dead

For an article in the Las Vegas Weekly called "Blog is Dead"

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Illustration Friday: Invention: Popsicle

Popsicle beach B/W
Popsicle beach Color

In 1905, the Popsicle was invented by an 11 year-old Frank Epperson. He had left his fruit flavored soda outside on the porch with a stir stick in it. The drink froze overnight, and the next morning he discovered the frozen treat. He originally called it the "Epsicle" (no relation to the Epilady), which his children later re-named to the more palatable "Popsicle."

For this illustration, I was inspired by some old kids' cookbook illustrations, that were just line art and photographic items (like cakes, ice cream cones etc. If i can find them again, i'll put up a link or post them.) I ended up doing a color version too. I like the line art one better, but I figured I'd post both. Tell me which one you like better.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Illustration Friday: Thanksgiving Pt. 3: We Are Family*

Thanksgiving I did this one for the (Portland) Oregonian last year for their Thanksgiving Food Section.

*Does anyone remember how when Pepsi Free (Pepsi without caffeine) was introduced in the 80s, the jingle was to the "We are family" tune, but they sang "We are Pepsi Free..."?

Illustration Friday: Thanksgiving Pt. 2: The Turkey's Revenge


I did this back in the day (1999?) at EarthLink for some holiday webpage. I found this in the detritus of my ftp server. If I find the vector version I'll post a larger version.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Illustration Friday: Thanksgiving

Turkey
A turkey I did for YM's November Calendar Section.
YM is "Young & Modern"

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Illustration Friday: Clear

Illustration Friday: Clear
I was drawing a blank on this theme. So I revamped an older illustration that
I did this for a Mother's Day/Maternity card for Papyrus a few years ago.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Drawn and the Skeleton Hootenanny

Thanks to all the visitors from Drawn.ca.
And thanks to Robot Johnny for posting my cat submission.
Link

Black and Orange Contest Submission
Also, one more Halloween goodie: Here is an ancient flash skeleton thing i did.
Its been down/not linked to for like 5 years. But some guy just emailed me recently wanting to see it again.
So here it is:

Skeleton Hootenanny
Link

Monday, October 30, 2006

Illustration Friday: Wind

Illustration friday: Wind
The kite was inspired by a combination of Pillsbury Funny Face packages and Japanese kites.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Illustration Friday: Ghost

Illustration Friday: Ghost
My 4 year old daughter saw some skeletons on TV, and said "Daddy, those are ghosts without their sheets."

Friday, September 22, 2006

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Bento Lunch Box

Bento Lunch Box
This was for an article in the Oregonian (Portland, OR) about these new cool bento style lunch boxes. The art director wanted the bento kid to look kind of anime.
This was one of my first experiments adding textures to my illustrations.

YM Turkey

Turkey
A turkey I did for YM's November Calendar Section.
YM is "Young & Modern"

Illustration Friday: Smoke

Father's Day Mowing version 1
Father's day Mowing version 2

Nothing like a corn cob pipe smoke while you mow the yard.
Here are 2 similar versions of a Father's Day card design I did awhile ago. Both were bought by greeting card companies. But neither were used. So both are available if any greeting card people want it.

Pacifist Gamer

Pacifist Gamer
For a Las Vegas Weekly article on a pacifist that likes violent video games.

HOT!

Kiddie Pool
Hot Pepper
A couple of illustrations that were done for the Las Vegas Weekly "HOT" issue.

http://lasvegasweekly.com/2006/05/18/index.html

Parking Lot Paintings

Parking Lot Paintings
For a Las Vegas Weekly article on those Painting Sales in grocery store parking lots

Monday, September 18, 2006

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Book Monkey

Book Monkey

I did this for the Las Vegas Weekly for an article about a "Book Monkey"

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Illustration Friday: Farm

farm_pig

I grew up on a pig farm just outside of Joy, Illinois. This was inspired by those old postcards with the giant produce and animals.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Illustration Friday: Safe

Illustration Friday: Safe

When my 4 year old daughter saw this, she said "Why is the cat looking at the bird?"
I said, "Because he wants to eat the bird."
She says, "Daddy, cats only eat mice."
4 year old wisdom.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Illustration Friday: Run

jcoulter_run_caveboy

Yeah, I know caveboys didn't exist during the time of the dinosaurs...