michelle@michellekondrich.com
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Sausage Farfalle and a Recipe Comics Page
I just finished yet another recipe comic for something that is a regular dish in our household – sausage farfalle with arugula and tomatoes. The last year or so I’ve been having a love affair with arugula; I’ll put it in just about anything.
I’ve had a couple of people on Twitter let me know what kinds of recipes they would like to see from me, but if you’ve got some requests, I’m all ears.
In addition to finishing another recipe comic, I’ve added a new Recipe Comics page to my site. They didn’t quite fit with my portfolio but I thought they deserved a spotlight too, beyond being buried in the archives of my blog.
Beyond 100
This week I decided to give myself an editorial assignment. It’s work I love to do but I don’t get nearly as much practice as I would like. This is an illustration based on a recent article in National Geographic. The article explored aging and the discovery of genes in our DNA that could possibly protect us from chronic diseases and enabling us to live longer. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with technique lately and this is one such experiment.
The Honeybee
Here is a quick little painting I did for my husband for our recent anniversary. He’s a huge fan of bees and dreams of having his own hives one day. I drew the bee in pencil and then painted the comb right over the top. This is available as a print in my Print Shop.
Herbed White Bean Dip – New Recipe Comic
Over the weekend I did a new recipe comic for Herbed White Bean Dip with Toasted Crostini. This is a really great recipe when you’re having some friends over and it’s something a little different than, say, hummus or spinach dip. Trust me, with the bacon mixed in, this won’t last long.
Enjoy!
Moving Day – New Illustration
I have been working very hard the last few weeks and months to up my illustration game. I’ve been pushing my composition skills and experimenting with new techniques and this is another piece that has come out of that experimentation.
I was inspired to paint this by my little sister who is having a baby next month and moving to their new house next week. I particularly enjoyed painting the food and containers on the coffee table and the Nintendo sitting on top of a box. These little details can really make a big difference and they’re fun to draw.
Recipe Comic For Cooking Up Comics
I was thrilled when Alisa Harris over at Cooking Up Comics asked if I would like to contribute a guest recipe to her blog. The recipe went up early this morning and now I can finally share it with you!
Alisa’s blog is an all vegetarian (often vegan) recipe comic blog and she has been posting comics of her own for some time now. They are always fun recipes and I encourage you to check out the rest of them.
I loved creating this recipe comic and I hope to do more of them in the future. Illustrating food is something I really enjoy so for any of you out there that have a food project you need illustrated, let me know!
Painting Experiment
Sheesh, I just realized that my last blog post was from the 27th of February! Talk about getting behind. I apologize for the relative silence. I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and work has been very busy. Naturally, that means I’ve been doing a lot of client work that I can’t share and haven’t had much time for other stuff. Though, if you follow me on Instagram you can see a lot more of my sketching/painting.
So this is one of my latest watercolor paintings. I am currently obsessed with using my one Kuretake waterbrush pen. It’s made mostly for painting on the go, but I also really like it for my other painting except that it’s a little small. There is a line of about 4-5 of them and I’d love to get them all. I feel like it gives me more control over how much water I put on the page and it has such a smooth feel. Not to mention the portability factor.
Anyway, after reading Glyn Dillon’s The Nao of Brown, which is a gorgeous book that you should all read, I decided to try painting with watercolor over pencil. Dillon creates his comics in pencil but then prints the pencils onto watercolor paper so I was just sure that painting directly over the pencil would lead to a smeared lead distaster but it didn’t. Lately, I’ve been feeling like my process is too complex – I draw each illustration in too many stages and the resulting image can be stiffer than I intended. So by using pencil as the final drawing stage I get to leave off one round of redrawing. I do still love inking, though and I will probably go back and forth between the two techniques.
And if you didn’t noticed, I added a Print Shop tab to the navigation on my site. If you’re looking for prints of my work, hit it up!
Teaching and Working
You may have noticed that the blog has been somewhat quiet along with my other social media venues the last week or two. Life has been pretty insane so I wanted to give you an update on what I’ve been doing and announce the new class I am teaching with Tentiko.
Tentiko is a new Denver start-up that arranges unique, Denver-based experiences with local people. Working with them, I have created a “Paint a Recipe” experience that I will be teaching on March 23rd at Water 2 Wine. You can read the full description and get all of the details here. Sign up if you’re local or tell a friend who might be! There will be wine and food and you can bring in your favorite recipe or a family recipe and we will all paint together while I teach you a bit about technique, composition, and color.
Cannoli – illustration for DaVinci Wines
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to be featured on the I Love Your Work, Jonathan Fenske blog. It’s a lovely little feature and you can get some insight into how I work and whose work I’m really into at the moment. Thanks Jennifer & Jonathan!
I’ve had a crazy freelance schedule the last couple of months (which I am extremely grateful for) and this week things only got crazier. Since Monday I have been working in New Jersey for Merck Pharmaceuticals. I can’t tell you anything about what I’m doing yet, but it’s an incredible opportunity and I hope to continue working with them in the months to come. For now, I will be here for two weeks and I am staying in an adorable farmhouse in rural New Jersey. I may be away but, don’t worry, I am still available for commission!
Some of you may have seen me post this on Instagram but I did want to mention it here as well. I ordered a print of my work from InPrnt as part of a gift and I was so impressed with the work that they did. Below is an unretouched picture of the print I received.
Not only is it gorgeous, but this is printed larger than the size it was painted at and it looks fantastic. If you are interested in prints from me for a very reasonable price, my InPrnt shop is the way to go! And if there is something you want a print of that is not available, let me know and I will get it up as soon as possible.
Whiteboard Video Illustration for Ricoh USA
Ricoh USA Digital Imaging Services Whiteboard Illustration from Michelle Kondrich on Vimeo.
Late last year I was hired by Words at Work to illustrate a whiteboard video for Ricoh USA’s Digital Imaging Services. The more of this type of work I do, the more I enjoy it. I love the storyboard process, the video shoot, and seeing the final product come together. These videos lend themselves to somewhat dry subject matter and are great for Business to Business communications but they are also great for complex TED talks and can liven up process descriptions.
The folks at Words at Work flew me to Minneapolis for the shoot and they were just wonderful to work with and I would jump at the chance to do it again.
For those that are interested in this type of thing but might not have the time or the budget for a full video shoot, I am also able to make some very simple animation that mimics whiteboard videos. Get in touch if you’d like to work on one together.
I would also like to announce that I have a new print shop in addition to the shop where I sell my original paintings. I now have a limited selection of high quality giclee prints up at Inprnt.com. If there is anything you would like a print of that you don’t see in the shop (or that you would like a larger print of) let me know and I will get it up as quickly as I can.
“Secret Recipe” – New Illustration for Light Grey Art Lab
I hit the ground running in 2013 with an incredible workshop at the Light Grey Art Lab with Kali Ciesemier. You can read Light Grey’s recap of the workshop here and Kali’s here. It was an incredible weekend where I had the good fortunate to hang out with some great people, spend time with other illustrators, and learn a thing or two about myself and my work. I’ve learned a few things about avenues I no longer want to pursue as heavily as well as some that I want to put more concentration into.
As part of the workshop, we were all asked to create a piece for Light Grey’s newest show, Message in a Bottle. Above is my piece for the show, titled Secret Recipe. I’m working on moving all of my prints to another venue, but in the meantime the original painting is available in my shop.
**UPDATE**
This piece and others are now available as high quality giclees in my new Inprint print shop
Here is the pencil drawing:
And this is after I started inking the drawing:
The show will be full of secrets and messages and I’m disappointed I can be there to see it in person. It’s going to be a very interactive show and, believe me, the people at Light Grey know how to show you a good time.
