Illustrating a recipe

Earlier this year I had a motivational and inspiring Skype conversation with the wonderful Victoria Johnson. a designer who provides art consultations. I did this to help me refocus on my art licensing goals. These had taken a back seat in the last 12 months as I was establishing the printing of my Greeting cards of my drawings for sale on my Etsy shop. I also took amazing opportunities for exhibitions along the way. I do not regret these sidetracks for a moment as they are both leading to other amazing opportunities and making wonderful connections.

One of the goals that Victoria suggested was to enter my art work onto They Draw & Cook (TDAC) It is the internet’s largest collection of illustrated recipes created by artists from around the world. It is where creative people share their love of food and art through illustration. Those of you who have been following me will know I love to draw food. ( I am not so keen on the cooking part, but have friends who can test/provide me with recipes).

Here is my first entry.

Alissa Duke

In creating this I discovered a few things

♦ It was a challenge to draw in a different format  –my current sketchbook is 19cm x 13cm .The size required for the website is 42cm x 15cm

♦ I have a lot to learn about composition of a page. I will have to design the illustration around the recipe, not the other way around.

♦ It requires planning. I will need to think about a page and not just start drawing on the page, as I usually do in my sketchbook. It requires a different approach.

♦ I will look at hand lettering options and styles of lettering. I would prefer not to use a typo graphic font at the moment.

♦ I am going to have to learn more on Photoshop . As this was another goal from Victoria, these submissions will provide me with practical experience. (Photoshop is an image editing software that allows you to manipulate, crop, resize, and correct color images.) I need to learn Selection Tools and Layering as a start.

♦ I really love to draw food – raw ingredients or finished pieces. It took longer to work out how to layout the recipe instructions than it did to draw the food – and more stressful.

Here are some of my previous food drawings of sweets and desserts and raw ingredients and sandwiches.

I am really looking forward to creating my next recipe.

8 thoughts on “Illustrating a recipe

  1. Valerie Gardiner

    This is lovely Alissa, how exciting to have a new challenge to get your teeth into. I really like your lettering, it looks so natural, I can understand why you don’t want to use a font.

  2. alissa Post author

    Thank you Valarie. I would like to build up a few styles of hand lettering to use in my sketchbooks and other projects like this.
    Also, at the moment I do not want to the spend extra time learning another technical aspect of photoshop. I think I have enough challenges there. (I also enjoy writing)

  3. Mary McCarty

    Love your color of chocolate on all you desserts. Are you using colored pencil or your own watercolor mixture. I think you have hit on a great new challenge as your food always looks good enough to eat. Mary

  4. alissa Post author

    Thanks Mary. I really love drawing food. Sweets are always visually appealing. I enjoy drawing them more than eating them!

    I only use watercolour pencils ,not paints.The watercolour pencils (all Faber Castell) in chocolate can include Burnt Umber, Walnut Brown, Burnt Sienna. If there is some lighter colour it could include Raw Umber (one of my few Derwents) and Burnt Ochre. Alissa

  5. Jules

    What a wonderful idea, Alissa! Your food illustrations are always good enough to eat! This is so beautifully depicted – and the lettering is simply gorgeous.
    Good luck with Photoshop. I use a freeware package and taught myself the basics, it was time consuming, but worth it! Looking forward to seeing your next recipe.

  6. alissa Post author

    Thanks Jules. It is exciting to find a place for my food drawings! I am so confident with drawing the food and so lacking in confidence in the lettering and technical aspects. But practice will cure this.

  7. Zoya

    The drawing looks lovely. Good luck with new challenges. I’ve been struggling with the Photoshop for few months now. There is so much to learn to run an art business.

  8. Youanna N.

    Hi Alissa, I love your recipe sketch, and plan to try the recipe as well. Too cute! Take a look at Lightroom software as well. I had a tough time with Photoshop, but find Lightroom is so much more user friendly. Looking forward to your next recipe/illustration.

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