Happy Pantry: Celery and Peanut Butter

 Everything was going fine until Peanut Butter's exes showed up...

But even those jellies (and chocos) couldn't keep our two new fast friends from being together.  Why do they taste so good together?  Because sometimes life gives you a win for no reason.  Just enjoy.  Celery tastes like nothing by itself, but add a dollop of peanut butter and suddenly you're in mouth party heaven.  And it's satisfyingly crunchy too!

Happy Pantry: April showers....

April showers are just an excuse to cozy up and hug in the romance!

Happy Pantry: I'll be brief...

Broccoli in briefs that is!

Happy Pantry: Apple Fools!

Are we doing it right?

I'm an Orange...........APPLE FOOLS!

That's not funny, but it still makes me smile...

Spirited Away...on a train

No Name was one of the best parts of Spirited Away - sure he became a weird big monster that ate everything, but what a cutie when he was little!!!

So I drew this quick version of him sitting on the train.  He's too cute to hurt anyone, isn't he?  Just don't eat the chocolate....

Indiana Jones is on the roof

There was a joke we were told as kids about telling someone that someone is dead -

It goes something like, "A kid is away at camp and calls home where his dad answers and immediately blurts out that the cat is dead.  The kid is obviously distraught, and bawling about how they've ruined his camp experience by dropping such sad tragic news and they should build up to it where if the cat wasn't doing well, maybe she had climbed up on the roof of the house but got stuck and maybe next time he called she fell off and was whisked away to the hospital and then the final time maybe then she succumbed to her injuries and passed away - that way there would be some time for him to process it and be prepared for the bad news.  The kid then goes on to ask how mom is doing and the dad goes, "Your mom is on the roof..."


It's a terrible joke with a biting punchline - but it felt appropriate for talking about Indiana Jones and the last attempt at a money grab.  Harrison Ford is SO old now and the movie isn't even filming yet - so he's going to be even older and somehow is going to portray this character that he played 30 years ago?  It just feels like Ford aged out of playing characters like this - so I drew this to mourn the news:

Old Man Indiana Jones - almost done!

Getting close to completion...

Indiana Jones is how old!?!?

Everyone was excited about a new Indiana Jones movie coming out - myself included - i wasn't so keen on Chris Pratt - but it would be better than the horrible Crystal Skull movie that came out a little while ago that we all hated...

But then they announced that Harrison Ford was coming back to the franchise - to kill it off completely, I expect?

He was great as Han Solo - and it was good to see him back in that - but he moved so much like an old man, and it was a little distracting to see him bumble about all slow like.  And now he's going to be even older and playing what could be an even more dashing character?  It feels like they need to regroup with a younger actor.  Until then, here's what I think it'll look like:

I did a quick sketch with the old man from UP, which is what Harrison Ford is looking more like every day.  Only...with an earring, for some reason...

Charlie Brown strikes a pose

I did a pose of this with the head the other way, but that struck me as odd - so I turned his head around and he looks a lot better.

I don't remember why I thought of it, but I thought it would be funny to do a version of that iconic illustration of the little girl on the beach getting her bathing suit pulled by a dog but with Charlie Brown.

I wanted to do a stylized version of the two characters and experiment with some new photoshop brushes I found.

Choco Strawberry!

One of our favorite stock illustrations is the Chocolate Strawberry that Tracey did.  Can you believe this was done in Adobe Illustrator?  I think it's pretty crazy.  From where these programs were, to what they can do now, it's incredible.

In the right hands of course.  And this is an ode to one of our favorite desserts, the chocolate dipped strawberry.  It's also one of the best stock illustrations we've created!

Happy Pantry: eggstatic about Eggster, I mean Easter....

Easter is coming - and that always means two things.  People giving something up for Lent and probably cheating as often as they can on that, and eggs.  Lots of eggs.  It's something with the spring, and how every single creature on the earth is pooping out an offspring, but eggs are a big deal for Easter...even though, if you think about the whole Christian angle, which is supposed to be the biggest part of it all - eggs don't really fit in. 

Maybe if it was loaves of bread and fishies that everyone talked about and ate and hid around the yard....but no, it's eggs.

 The bad egg is the egg the kids don't find until a few months later.  What's too bad though is that if they left it for just a little while longer, it then could be eaten as one of those horrible 100 year old eggs that people dare each other to eat.  Gag one down today, won't you?

 Eggs don't wear glasses.  But nothing is worse than eating a mean that was made with eggs, and biting down on a piece of shell.  Unless it's a piece of glass, because that is worse.

This is also a bad egg.  When you buy a carton of eggs, there's always one that's cracked.  But only if you don't check on them.  They probably go bad from neglect...

Happy Egg-ster!

Computer screen logos

I did some work for a company called Epek.  They wanted a series of icon/buttons.

This page features two of my illustrations (the three on the left) - along with some reference to show how similar, but different they were.

They didn't like any of them.

Charlie Brown drawing

I thought this would be kind of funny.

This was my first pass...

I changed it around a little bit in the final line art.

Lollipoop

I was working on an illustration for our possible children's book.  We're thinking of an alliterative alphabet book as the first Happy Pantry book on the market.  We've finished almost half of the alphabet - and we're on L - so I was brainstorming things with the first L food that popped in my head and that was a lollipop.  I did a bunch of drawings before thinking how funny it would be to have a lollipop on a toilet and called it lollipoop.  And the magic that followed pretty much drew itself.

Of course, since it's a little on the juvenile side, it was rejected immediately as a Happy Pantry drawing, but will live on in our hearts and eyeballs as the one that flushed away...

toilet paper

There comes a time in a toilet paper roll's life when he realizes that things are going to get a whole lot worse...

This is a small section in a bigger illustration.

Happy Pantry: Coffee Time!

This is one of our original Happy Pantry images.  We knew we loved coffee and wanted to explore every aspect - starting with the containers that help us keep from being burned and help us transport said magic elixir from creation to our mouths.

Happy Pantry: That's one chili pepper!

It's getting quite chilly again, and that necessitates the pulling out of heavy winter gear.  Even hot stuff like chili peppers have to bundle up.

We usually refrain from the cheesy pink cheeks which seem to be very prevalent in kawaii illustrations - but this is one of the few times it's called for but only because the cold makes the extremities extra freezy.

Whatcha Eatin' Adelia?

 Whatcha eatin' Adelia?

How rude!

I was developing Adelia a few years ago as a cute penguin - and my version of Hello Kitty if I was to design a cute girl character.  I even got as far as development on a children's book as well as a handful of illustrations - but stalled out when I drew the Squaremania characters (Paddy Panda) as a supplement to Adelia, and then they quickly eclipsed her in my interest.

I went to a children's book illustrator meeting where I had an editor look at my portfolio.  She didn't get Adelia and said that kids would question why she didn't have a mouth (because she wasn't designed with one because she doesn't need one...not to mention the fact that the more I developed her, the less like a penguin she looked).  So I went home and redrew the top image with the bottom one and added a mouth.  So it's possible for her to have one, if she needs it - but I don't think she needs it.

New episode of Spongebob this weekend!

This weekend there's a new episode of Spongebob!

I drew a tooth.

Lollipoop rough

It's tough being a lolli - especially when it comes time to poop.  Skinny butts always slip through the hole...but better when one sits down than once one has commenced....

This is very clearly a Happy Pantry rejected illustration...but I knew that going in.