Illustrating Penny Webster’s cook book has been one of my most favourite projects. Helping her to make this legacy book happen was incredible.
Penny was adamant she did not want a traditional cook book with glossy food photographs. She loved my whimsical characters in Little Wing, and my illustrations of fruit and flowers. She wanted a collection of her life’s recipes handbound so the spine did not fall to pieces, as do so many of our well-used cookbooks. She envisioned it more as a story than a set of instructions. I spent many hours at Penny’s home drawing her beautiful china collection, pots and pans, and food! Of course we chattered away as I drew and one of her stories jumped out and begged to be the title of the book.
She told me of how her daughter Lana had brought her boyfriend home to have dinner with them. The Webster’s are a large family and Penny’s evening meals are like banquets. The boy looked around the room in awe of the food, the candles and the warm hospitality.
He exclaimed “Dining with the Webster’s is like dining with vikings!”
I made character dolls and positioned them getting up to mischief in the kitchen. My brief was just to draw! As I said before, a dream job and a dream client. The book was printed by Soar Printing and went on to win several awards in the New Zealand Pride of Print 2018.