Happy Holidays from my family to yours :)
I made this piece for The Girllustrators group that I'm part of. The theme was 'favorite holiday memory when you were a kid.
My family didn't really celebrate Christmas the traditional way. Instead, we used it as a time to gather with family and food! We would go to my grandma's house and we'd all pitch in to help prep and eat food. Some holiday staples included my Grandma's delicious egg rolls, a bed of herbs and lettuce, fish sauce (of course, nước mắm on everything), phở, and cơm gà (Vietnamese style Hainan chicken and rice).
I wanted to capture the warmth of being with family, the variety of dishes, and the communal aspect of everyone pitching in!
This piece challenged me in terms of complex colors, composition, and adding a lot of objects to a scene. I hope this peace makes you think of your favorite childhood memory :)
Food and nostalgia seem to always show up in my work and I'm not mad about it!
[Image Description: Illustration of a family of six in the kitchen and dining room in the style of children's book illustration. This is a digital illustration made on procreate. On top there's a grandma looking at her grandchildren standing next to the stove. There is a little girl with short black hair and bangs peaking behind the kitchen counter looking at her Grandma. There's a baby boy next to her on the ground holding an herb and he is also drooling a bit, but no worries he has a bib! At the bottom right there is a dinner table with many food items on it and three people sitting down prepping the food dishes. There are eggrolls, tea, herbs, fruit, herbs, lettuce, soysauce, fish sauce, and limes on a cutting board. The illustration is very vibrant and colorful.]