I’m giving myself the week off drawing a new comic - and giving us all a break from cocktail recipe comics. I thought it might be fun to show off a few of the projects I’ve been working on lately, in my new career as a full time artist. ^_^

Painting for Akahoshi Ramen:

Mike Satinover of Akahoshi Ramen asked me to create a painting for his restaurant. He had a frame that needed filling, so I was constrained by size, but everything else was up to me. I sent him a digital sketch to approve, and then I dragged out my gouache and watercolors and some sheets of Legion Stonehenge paper that had been on my shelf for a while, and I got to painting! I have been doing mostly digital drawing lately, and it was an absolute joy to paint with actual paints on actual paper. If you’re in Chicago, you can see this on the wall at Akahoshi (and get some incredible ramen at the same time).

Shirt design for Project Good Apparel:

Speaking of ramen! I made this ramen pattern for a shirt for Project Good Apparel a while ago, but they just debuted the shirt itself at this year’s C2E2, so I can finally talk about it! I had a lot of fun with this one. Seamless patterns are always a little tricksy to do, especially with a complicated line-art background, but they’re a thrill when you can make it work. The shirt should be up for sale on Project Good Apparel’s site soon if you want your own! They gave me one, and the fabric (made from 85% recycled materials!) is deliciously soft and smooth.

Illustration for a scientific paper for Gallio Labs:

I’ve done a few other projects for Gallio Lab’s scientific abstracts in the past, and it’s always wild and interesting work! They research how brains use external stimuli to understand and navigate the world. This image, inspired by classic horror movie posters, was for a paper about the snow fly and how it’s adapted to super cold environments. They’re using the art for an article in a scientific journal, and also for shirts and other swag.

Spot Illustrations for a self-published recipe book:

As near as I can tell, this book isn’t on the market yet so I can’t point you to it. Early in the year, a friend turned me onto Reedsy and I’ve been offering illustration and book cover designs through that site. This was my very first project there, a series of super charming little black and white food drawings for a self published recipe book, a companion to a fiction series. It was a fun project for a very gracious client, and made me feel extremely happy about working with Reedsy.

It’s been a really fun variety of projects, honestly! In this dismal age of AI everything, I’m overjoyed to see how much work there still is out there for artists. I have a few other really fun projects in the works too, which I hope to be able to share soon. And there might be some news coming on a new Let’s Make! book in the near future! Sometimes I think about how lucky I am to be able to make money making art and it takes my breath away. This is literally everything that child-me ever wanted out of life. ^_^

Upcoming Events:

I’m looking forward to a whole slew of events for the launch of Let’s Make Cocktails!. Here’s a list of upcoming things!

Shameless Self-Promotion:

I got some new prints in my shop this week, including this cutie!

I’ll have these with me at some of the events I’ll be at this spring, but you can also order them from my site for now.

What I’m Into Lately:

In my ongoing experiment where I’ve been asking my favorite people to recommend their favorite books, this week I read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, recommended by my friend Adelaide! I had not previously read any Ann Patchett, and this was a lovely book to start with. Based loosely on the Lima hostage crisis of the late 1990s (which I only vaguely remember), it’s ultimately a surprisingly sweet, thoughtful, and poetic book, and left me thinking a lot about how quickly we form strong connections across cultural barriers (and how important art is) in strange and difficult circumstances.

What Toki’s into Lately:

Toki’s been inspecting my seedlings lately (probably because they’re in a sunny window on a seedling heat mat). I am EXTREMELY lucky that this cat doesn’t like to eat plants.