This weekend I completed one of my most fun commission to date! My friend asked me to make a birthday cake for his girlfriend since they were both big fans of The Great American Baking Show and GBBO. (Btw, I always feel so special and awesome whenever asked to be apart of these special moments.) Like all my custom commissions, I usually ask what theme they have in mind or if there's a specific movie, show, character, etc. that the person is into. In this case, she was super into an anime series called Neon Genesis Evangelion and her favorite character is Rei Ayanami.
Upon my initial Google research, I have to say I was pretty intimidated given my style is more "cutesy" and less realistic than the beautiful artwork from the series. My friend helped provide me with some reference images and from there I started to sketch! It's not like I ever said I could draw... haha! But I did have fun designing this little 6" cake.
We narrowed down to 3 images that helped inspire the look of the cake. I also pulled inspiration from figurines and toys of anime characters to help me figure out how I wanted to craft Rei. I started to make the topper 4 days before the cake was due so I could properly dry the head and body before adding all the details. I also worked with my friend to ensure colors were accurate.
Before I changed her eyes to red!
Working on Lilth's Mask
In the end, this was not only a great exercise for me to continue honing my aesthetic/design style but also really made my heart sing when I saw how happy the cake made his girlfriend. :) Happy Birthday, Erin! Xoxo.