Lovely Doodles.

Just a quick little post so I can put up some little doodles I did. I'm still sitting on a post about pickled beets but I'll get to it soon.

When I'm at The House hanging out with Pappy, he likes to sit and watch me draw. I offered him a lot of drawing entertainment these last couple of days! :)

I am just crazy for early and mid Cenozoic mammals (you know, the weird ones with all the horns and tusks and fangs). It's just so neat to know that those weird-looking things actually lived. I drew a few pictures of the ones I like best and/or actually remember what they look like.

So, I drew them all from memory (the names I recalled from memory too). I wanted the pictures to be big enough to see on the page... so now they don't fit nicely... let's just go with it. :)

Just a mishmash of different mammals (from all different epochs too; I don't remember all those.)

Arctodus aka "short-faced bear", Thylacosmilus (a saber-toothed marsupial), Diatryma aka "Terror bird"

Oreodonts (Fast food of the Oligocene-Miocene epoch)

Paraceratherium.... the largest mammal to ever walk the Earth. Awesome! :)

Vichyssoise.

This was the first time I had a word pop into my head that I didn't even know how to pronounce. Vichyssoise.

Turns out it is a cold soup of sorts. Apparently, my subconscious wants me to make this!

From Wikipedia:
Vichyssoise (pronounced /ˌvɪʃiːˈswɑːz/ US dict: vi·shē·swäz′) is a thick soup made of puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is traditionally served cold, but can also be eaten hot.

So I pulled up a recipe from Allrecipes.com. (I tend to like using this recipe site. Also foodnetwork.com--I love Alton Brown recipes and Ina Garten recipes!)

*http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/vichyssoise/detail.aspx

*http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/leek-potato-soup/44627.html  ---This link is to an Alton Brown video. It shows the process and I used a mixture of his recipe and the one from Allrecipes.

Ingredients I used:

*4 leeks (they were pretty thin) (see the Alton Brown link for the chopping process)
*Yukon Gold potatoes (I used a little over a pound but I think it may have been too much)
*3 Tbsp butter
*4 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)
*1 cup cream
*1 cup half and half
*salt and pepper

-Sweat leeks with salt in 4qt pot on medium low heat 15 mins. Every recipe I found stressed the importance of NOT letting them brown.
-Add chopped potatoes and chicken broth
-Bring to boil then quickly reduce heat to a simmer
-Simmer 30 mins or until potatoes are soft
-Pour into a blender and puree until smooth
-Stir in cream and half and half.
-Serve cold or hot

I dug up some fresh Yukon gold potatoes from my Grandma Zimmerman's garden what we helped plant earlier this summer. They are delicious! Smooth and buttery. Great for vichyssoise.

I also served the soup with some slices of bratwurst made locally (Redneck brand) to make it a heartier meal.

The general consensus was that my vichyssoise was a hit! Everyone liked it. But then again, that was all they would  get for dinner... so they had to eat it. :)

I, however, was conflicted. I would recommend eating it warm because the soup got kind of a 'skin' as it cooled.

I used too much potato and tipped the balance of flavors. It should have had a more developed leek flavor.

Either way, I just love the process. Enjoy your vichyssoise!

That Illustration Thing/ The Slumpy Summer.

I write this post mainly because it is helping me procrastinate its namesake.

I was commissioned to illustrate a children's book last November. And I have indeed been steadily plugging away at it. I managed to do preliminary sketches of every page, redo those sketches and make a few color roughs all while I was still in school. But with the coming of summer, I had found little to no time to work on it. I wonder why I seemed to have more free time while in school...

In the summer, I work. Usually a lot. But since my grandma died in March, my family has become swamped with even more responsibilities. My grandpa has been descending, agonizingly slowly, into more advanced Alzheimer's. He hasn't said my name in years, but I must still be a familiar presence to him. It had been Gramma's job to take care of him. It may be part of the reason she fell ill. There is constant mental strain involved in caring for him. We should know. It's our job now.
We don't want to move him from his house just yet. He's comfortable there and he knows when he's not at home. My mom has been living at The House (grandpa's house) the entire summer to take care of him. It is in Columbia Falls and is a half hour drive from our house. My siblings, Dad and I visit when we are done with work nearly every night. We stay till 10:30 or 11:00. Then we go home. Then do it again.

I was envious of Facebook posts saying someone got to go to the lake, or go camping, hang out with friends, have their own life. I saw the days float past my eyes. Metronome ticks. Suffocated. Stagnant. Suspended.
Alone in this together.

I am mindful enough to know that I am not the only one who feels this way. Each member of my family has put in our share and more to help the situation. However, it doesn't make it less difficult.

Grandpa is a wonderfully polite, sweet man (although everyone has an off day) and we never wanted him to feel like a burden. It's so hard to hear him ask over and over where his Frankie Lou has gone. We haven't healed from her loss and must relive it as often as he asks. Should a man, who was once so strong and independent, be treated like a child?

There is likely more I need to say about this situation, but I have lost my train of thought and have detached from the emotion. Some other time, eh?

The illustration thing, now, is something for which I have some emotion. I promised my client that I would have the whole series of illustrations completed by the first day of Fall and will deliver them that weekend. It's almost pathetic how long it has taken me to finish this work and I am growing more resentful about it. That isn't fair to my client. But I must have greatly underestimated the amount of work I'd need to put into this project.
Another issue I'm facing with this project is what I call my "background dilemma". I was one of those kids who, when coloring in my coloring books, would never pay any attention to the background. I was a no-nonsense subject matter kind of gal. Besides, who wants to spend too much time filling the "sky" with one or more shades of blue when it takes up 2/3 of your page space?? Besides, the spastic strokes never ended up looking nice. The rest of my artistic career consisted of nebulous backgrounds and floaty subject matter (and I likely wont be changing that).
My client specifically requested backgrounds that contain a lot of detail. And it isn't such an issue when you're just doing one painting, although I don't tend to put much detail in my backgrounds normally. This is up to 20 paintings.
Despite my aversion to painting backgrounds and my lack of time to work on it, I am making progress on this project.  I will be able to deliver it and be done with it and I can call it a learning experience. What I've learned is this:
*The artist should completely understand the amount of labor required to pull off the project before accepting the task (and compensation).
*The artist should agree with the client that the style of artwork is to be decided by the artist and not altered too much to fit the author's vision. Artists have a tough time deviating from their chosen style. And let me remind you: An illustrator doesn't win a Caldecott  Award for artwork that only has "cute" going for it. Interesting, intriguing art is what draws children to a book.
*You're not doing favors by not giving your artist deadlines. A short leash is helpful to keep one on track. If the artist absolutely needs an emergency extension, they will contact you.

Here are some pics of the work in progress.