Zucchini Mufffin

 All done.

(click on it to see it bigger)

This was fun. Tedious, but fun. All Polychromos on Stonehenge. No solvents. Its about 4 x 11 on a slightly larger piece of paper. So pretty much life size.

I'm not sure what to call this type of subject and style. I posted this question on Facebook the other day and got some fun suggestions! Its botanical + architectural (since it shows a top, or plan view; side or elevation; and a cross-section), + gastronomical, because its food. Right? So I was doing creative combinations like gastrobotanitectural, archibotanomical, etc. Those are a mouthful. Maybe I don't need to call it anything. But it would be fun say "Paula does these botanitectural food pieces" - or something. Suggestions welcome!!


One thing I have learned doing these is to keep the light source consistent - or else. Like, if you start the piece in natural daylight, that's how you need to complete it. When the light fades and you turn on the studio lights, WHAMO!, it looks totally different. This makes it difficult to do a marathon drawing session, or to work on a seriously overcast day, when you need to turn lights on.

The other thing to watch out for is crumbs!! Little bits fall off and can leave an oily stain if left sitting on the paper for too long, so beware, and brush often (the drawing, that is).

Another pesky thing are flies. Bleah. I had one in the studio, and although he didn't land on this, there will be other muffins and other flies. Especially as the weather warms up.

I worked on this over a couple of days, and when I stopped for the night, I carefully covered the muffin (on its little display stand - a coffee mug) with a Ziplock plastic bag. That kept critters off of it and also kept it from getting dried out.

Oh, and I did end up using green, after all. Zucchini bits are green. Green is fine in food if its actually supposed to be green. Last post I was saying how green wasn't a good color for food (mold, you know). Unless you're drawing mold on purpose. (Hmmmm, is that the seed of an idea?)

Anyway. I'll be doing more of these. But I've been neglecting my children's book side while this 'fine art side' has been having its day, so I'll be doing more of that now for a while.