Rurouni kenshin seaweed art

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anime bento, bento, character bentos, cheese, creative food, cute food, food art, himura kenshin, Home Cooking, Kyaraben, rurouni kenshin, samurai x, seaweed, seaweed art

Another seaweed art I did over the long weekend. I’ve been wanting to do a rurouni kenshin one for over a year now and finally have some free time to stay home and mess around with seaweed. Perfect time for rurouni kenshin as two of the movies are out this year!  

 First step? Again, draw the character of your choice, it should be either a line art or just black and white, not grey tones or anything cuz you can’t distinguish that in the seaweed.

2nd, I skipped this step because I plain forgot… trace out your character on a clean sheet of paper using ink, then block the black parts in. Since I forgot, I just used this as a topper and didn’t eat it (couldn’t bear to anyway!). OR you can combine the first and second step by just printing out the lineart/black and white image of your choice and just use that if you’re not particularly comfortable with drawing freehand.

 3. Next, prepare your tools! My brother and sister got me a new set of bento cutting tools (a great design cutter!) and pincers since my older set is in Singapore. Clip the drawing on top of the seaweed against the cutting board.

 4. Start cutting all the WHITE parts out! This is a particularly intricate piece and had many tiny details. I accidentally cut out some seaweed lines which could have been rectified by snipping small lines of seaweed, but of course by the end of it I just couldn’t be bothered anymore.

5. Cut the small white pieces first. If you cut out the large pieces, the seaweed will shift around and make it impossible to cut the tiny ones. Use pincers to remove the paper and seaweed as you go along.

 Phew! There’s the face done.

Once in a while, flip up the paper to have a look if your seaweed is being cut cleanly and properly.

And you’re done!

Transfer the seaweed careful and stick it on a slice or two of cheese. I might try a harder cheese next time so it is easier to handle, but this cheese is sticky and the seaweed sticks very well onto it.

 6. Cut the cheese and trim it around the seaweed.

 7. Add to your bento! Or in this case, tomato soup. One of the many ways to jazz up boring canned soup. 

Although some croutons wouldn’t hurt as well!

 It was so difficult to photograph as the light kept shining off it! I wish I had daylight to take a proper photo of it.

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Deconstructed bibimbap bento

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bento, bibimbap, breakfast, character bento, character bentos, cute, deconstructed, easy bento, food art, healthy, Home Cooking, Korean, Kyaraben, lunch, lunchbox, panda character bentos, vegetables

Kakashi Kyaraben

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anime, bento, character bentos, cheese, food art, Home Cooking, japanese, Kakashi, kakashi bento, Kyaraben, naruto bento, seaweed art

Edit: Just updated the post with a couple of photos from the slr. Thought it would look a little nicer 😉

I’m really really behind on my posts! I’ve got sooooo much to blog about, but have been too busy travelling the past month.

Now to complete this post!

As always for seaweed art in bento making, you need the cutting board, cutter for intricate designs, a piece of paper, binding clips, paper, a slice of cheese, a large sheet of seaweed, a pencil, a pair of small sharp scissors and tweezers.

Firstly trace out the shape of your bento box onto the piece of paper. Then and only then do you start drawing/sketching your favorite character within the drawn boundaries. Something not too complicated, with simple and clear lines would be good. Otherwise you’d be snipping the life out of the seaweed!

Another tip. Try not to handle the seaweed with your bare hands as much as you can. The heat and moisture from your fingers will cause the seaweed to go limp and difficult to manage. Use the tweezers instead.

Once you’re done with the drawing, place the drawing on top of the seaweed and clip both drawing and seaweed to the cutting board. To ensure that the drawing doesnt move around while you’re cutting, ensure that the drawing is as close to the clipped area as possible. If you’ve left a lot of space between the drawing and the binding clips, it will make cutting a whole lot more difficult as the seaweed and paper are more prone to moving about and tearing.

Start cutting out the white bits! Start by cutting out the small white bits first. Once you’re done with the little tricky bits, you can then cut out the larger white bits. 

Here I’ve cut off the larger bit after completing the smaller parts. Of course, I couldn’t perfectly cut everything. I accidentally cut off the eye area but that’s ok. I can use another piece of seaweed to create another eye.

For the thinner lines such as the hair and the scar, it would be better to use the scissors rather than try to attempt to cut out fine lines using the cutter.

Fix on the thinner strips of seaweed onto the cheese to complete the character.

Lastly, trim the cheese if you prefer, and place as a decoration on top of your completed bento. I shan’t show my actual bento here because it was sloppy and simple. Just egg sandwiches that night.

Hopefully in my next bento attempt I’ll create something nice and cute! Something perhaps a little different from seaweed art.