Love

Happy Valentines Day everyone!
I drew this for my wonderful wife on her birthday this year. I'm so proud of her and thankful to have her by my side. Not to mention this little bugger too:



I also made heart friendly vegan pancakes this weekend. They were quite good. Here is the recipe:

1 Cup Flour (All purpose)
1 Cup Almond Meal (Trader Joes)
3.5 Tsp Baking Powder
1 1/4 Cup Rice Milk
1 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal (Trader Joes)
3 Tbs Water
1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1. Mix Flax meal and water and let stand for 2 minutes (This is the egg substitute, alternatively you could use a couple Tbsps of organic "no sugar / fructose syrup added" apple sauce)
2. Wisk together remaining dry ingredients
3. Mix together wet ingredients.
4. Make a well in the dry bowl and pour wet into it. Mix until just combined.
5. 1/4 cup per cake into a pan over medium heat.

The olive oil makes them taste very buttery even without butter. I ate them plain and they were delicious. But top with fruit or berries for added yumminess. These will have more of a fluffy cakey consistency than a typical pancake. They are slightly more fragile so flip them gently.

Pollenation

Here's a new drawing I just finished up. Going through my old sketchbooks made me pick up a ball point pen which used to be my pen of choice. Now I prefer rollerball tips which behave a little more consistently. I used a pen my father in law made on his lathe which is good for writing but feels a little weird to draw with. But having a few small obstacles like that forces an element of unpredictability into the process which is nice. As has been my usual practice of late, all color was done digitally so the original is black and white only and can be viewed on our flickr page if you click on the image.

Purple Tulip as a Rose

Purple Tulip as a Rose, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

I haven't had much time lately for drawing as our little bug has been on the move. All free time is spent supervising little guy as he explores the house in search of new things to bang his head on or sleeping or finishing reading the book du jour (American Gods - Neil Gaiman.)

I did snag a little time that I should have spent sleeping to create this though. Playing with my new scanner, I scanned in a tulip from a bunch I had gotten Little A for V-Day. I then tweaked it into a rose-like bloom in the computer and adjusted the image to give it a little bit of a painterly feel.