She Sings From Somewhere You Can’t See

I decided to try this technique posted by Bumskee in the ConceptArt threads. Here is the sketch with some of the basic colours blocked in. Below, the finished sketch.

In case you ever actually have these items hanging around in your kitchen, you can make a very yummy risotto with them, provided you also have the arborio rice and some gorgonzola and a few other piffling ingredients. I mostly follow that recipe, but I am pretty freeform when it comes to risotto. So I added leeks, because I like leeks, and because I had half of an old onion (red) waiting to be used, my onion is half red onion, half yellow. I decided I liked the red, because it gave the mixture a little bit of colour. You can optionally sautee the leek and onion with a little garlic, but I don’t recommend more than two or three garlic cloves, since you don’t want to overwhelm the pear. I use two pears worth of pears. And for the cheese part, I did some parmesan–what I had left from the last time I made risotto–and probably a quarter cup of gorgonzola crumbles. Again, not totally sure, because I just sorta throw stuff at the pot. Spices: freshly ground pepper, parsley, a pinch of basil. (Majoram also works nicely, but I didn’t use it this time.)

Anyways, how I do this:

Dice pears. Caramelize pears. Once they are browning at the edges, but still goldeny in the middle, toss in the leeks, red onion, and garlic. (Don’t wait too long. You don’t want squishy pear.) Add more butter. Sautee. Once leeks and red onion are softened, remove mixture. Sautee yellow onion in butter. Add risotto rice. Add broth. Stir a lot. Probably stir on and off for about 25 minutes. Keep adding broth whenever you can see too much of the rice. (You will probably go through about five cups of broth.) When rice is a little al dente but not too (25 minute mark approximately), I add the caramelised pears and sauteed leeks and red onion. Then I add my parmesan, then I add gorgonzola, then I add the spice mixture I put to the side. Then I stir it all, dish it up, and garnish with pear slices.