Recipes cards, chalkboard effect.

I am playing around with my mom's recipes, trying to come up with a fresh approach to this project.

I love black, I would paint every wall of my house in chalkboard paint, it's perfect for an urban cafe's look, but I'm trying to understand if this would work too for a collection of recipes cards or for a book.

This fish seems happy to be eaten, and I'm sure, with this 3 ingredient recipe, who wouldn't be?

Add some greens sauteed with olive oil and garlic, drizzle with lemon and have a happy light meal.

See you soon with more pages.

Designing Fabric: Boots an Bunnies.

Hello,
for this design I am experimenting with colors inspired by the mid century era.
I am trying to avoid using too much pink, purple and violet while designing fabric that could be marketed to little girls. There is such poor variety of choices while choosing a palette for a girl's room or  for clothing, than one start to wonder if the reason why they like pink so much, it's because it's the only thing they see in stores.

This fabric is also on Spoonflower during the Wellies and galoshes upcoming contest.

Vote for me!

Ciao.

Designing fabric: A whale of a time.

This past week, I worked on this whale fabric using Photoshop.
This is the palette I was given for this project:

It was interesting working with a restricted range of colors, at first it may seem difficult, but the result is very elegant and design friendly.

On April 1st this design will enter a contest on Spoonflower ,

I will keep you posted.

Ciao!

New Project

Hi there,
I am working on a project right now: the story of an acorn that grows hands and feet and start wondering around the city.
How did it get there?
Here are few sketches that will explain it.

Hope you like it,

Ciao

Sketch book: Illustrated Recipe Book

Hello,

it's January, time to set goals and self imposed deadlines.
This year I want to complete an illustrated book with seasonal Italian recipes given by my mother Valeria and previously collected on The Dead Chef  blog, Italian Version.

There is quite a lot of work to be done:

-I have to try all the recipes and translate them from the Metric system to the Imperial. Personally, losing the metric system is one of the most traumatic loss I experienced moving to the States, so I consider this a pretty heavy task.

-I should add more steps to the introduction and preparation of the recipes: my mother is a very skilled cook and she leaves out many passages that she takes for granted, like the temperature of the oven, or how many minutes it takes for a chunk of meat to "look good" in her knowledgable eyes.

-Find and eventually substitute seasonal products that are easily and cheaply available in Italy with the ones I find in America.
The stuff on sale is usually on season, but not many people know about seasonal products, unless they shop often at farmer's markets.

-When all the recipes are tried and proofed, I have to find a style and illustrate the book.
I like the sketch book look to a collection of recipes given by my mother, it gives a homey  and nostalgic feel to this project.

During the years I have played around with illustrated recipes, here are some examples:

And these are some sketches and ideas for the book starting with the month of January:

See you next time!