One for the foodie fans

In this tutorial you can discover the art of food illustration. This style of painting is really en trend and is a great way to get into watercolour!

Food illustration is a branch of illustration and falls into two main areas ~ an illustration for packaging (as part of the printed graphics)/advertising or an illustration of an existing food item used as a decorative piece of fine art (think Andy Warhol's Soup cans).

Food illustration isn’t just about packaged food - you can use any fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains or sources of proteins or you can select complete plates of food or baked goods - there really is no limit. If you can eat it ~ you can paint!!

In this tutorial we will look at two different versions of food illustrations and you can decide which one you would like to do ~or you might like to come back to this tutorial later and try out the remaining version! Alternatively you could go one step further and create your own illustration from scratch!

To begin, I will talk you through how you can research your product and then select a variety of elements to incorporate into your design. Once your design is complete, you can also think about your chosen colour palette. In food illustrations which are destined for packaging the image should resemble/reflect the item being sold. But in illustrations for fine art you can push the boundaries and create any colours you like.

In my examples you can see the same design using two different colour ways- they’re quite different!

In the alternative tutorial I will show you how to recreate an existing tin can thinking about your use of colours and techniques. Red can be a little tricky when it comes to creating solid colour but I will show you a few tricks you can use for better results!

Most of this painting will be completed onto dry which is great if you’re new to painting. It will also give you plenty of opportunities to get to grips with painting detail as you improve your brush control.

To find out more about this tutorial take a look at this short video.

Now you know how versatile food art can be - why not create some fun illustrations for your kitchen - but make them personalised - perhaps use your favourite ingredients or why not your favourite tipple?!

You could illustrate your favourite recipe - just look in your cupboards for inspiration!

Happy Painting!