In my journey of learning Art all by myself, I never saw or heard of food illustration until a few years back. For us, there were very limited subjects like landscape, portraits, still-life(fruits & flowers mainly), etc.

The primary reason was that there was less penetration of social media in our lives back then.

We were less exposed to new ideas in Art & hence i now feel that was a primitive age for us artists.

But gradually with the world growing smaller due to the internet,  I came across the global community called Urban Sketchers, where these artists would paint anything in their own style.

One thing that fascinated me most about these works was the food illustrations done by various artists with ink & watercolors.

These works were such a visual treat. So vibrant, so fresh & most importantly free from the bondage of old-school rules.

These works can be done by anyone from beginner to professional artists as works were not discriminated on the basis of how educated you are in Fine Art.

People just painted their food and uploaded these works on social media.

I was one among those thousands of artists who loved these works & my style got inclined towards food illustrations for quite a period of time.

Even now I never miss a chance to do a quick illustration of food items on my Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook.

And as we know watercolor has a very different & unique charm of its own. This quality made these illustrations even more special & beautiful.

Click to watch my Premium Skillshare class on food illustrations for FREE(2 months free subscription)

Now are you an artist who loves these food illustrations as I do?

Or

Are you a busy person who loves to paint but can manage time to paint only for a few minutes on a Sketchbook?

food illustration

If the answer is yes then, let me take you through 5 important tips to help you get started illustrating food with watercolors on a sketchbook:

• Never go into extreme details

Extreme details are very good for a good painting from a traditional point of view. But for a quick sketch or illustration, you cannot afford it. Infact it’s not desirable to go for these details. You are just taking a quick snapshot of the scene.

• Paint loose

This is in continuation of the first tip. You should paint loose to get a better result. Loose painting is where you use bigger brushstrokes to suggest tone, depth, shadows, light etc. Using a relatively bigger brush(than you would have normally used for a detailed work), would make it easier to achieve this loose effect.

• Hurry up

Yes. Hurry up. Literally !!

As you will be doing a quick illustration of the food, hurrying up is the best pace at which you will be painting. You will have to be as quick as possible thereby creating a sense of freshness & spontaneity.

• Suggest. Don’t copy

The whole idea of doing quick food illustration is to suggest the scene/object. You need not copy all the details & put it on your paper. It’s sometimes(well, majority of times) good to omit a few things here & there in the composition

• Use minimal art supplies

To compliment the above points, I would suggest you go with minimal art supplies for these kinds of illustrations. Having more tools will only confuse you. Try painting with a minimal palette or a single brush. You will achieve far better results.

I hope these small but important tips will help you start illustrating food with a clear mind & not to be afraid of mistakes. Infact in watercolors, mistakes should never be a thing to worry. They will always stay with you. And believe me, they will also create awesome works for you.

If you are interested to learn a bit more about Food illustration in watercolors, do check out my new class on Skillshare. I am giving a FREE ACCESS LINK to my readers. You will also get a 2 months premium subscription of Skillshare for free. But if you choose to continue the Skillshare subscription beyond the free period(which is totally upto you), I will earn a referral commission of $10 at no extra cost to you.

Also please review the class on Skillshare & spread the word if you like it.