Art Teaching | 20 Lines A Day

June 6, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

ORANGES ARE APPEALING

For over thirty years, I’ve illustrated food. I loved the challenge of rendering fruit; each variety had beautiful colors and textures to capture. All of these paintings were done before Photoshop existed.

With citrus fruit and oranges, I created a pattern of circles and “half moons” that radiated from the highlight in order to replicate the orange peel texture.

This is one of my earliest watercolors of oranges for Sundance Beverages. It is purely with watercolor and doesn’t utilize the acrylic glazing that I developed later on.

I have so many illustrations of citrus fruit, that I am dividing them into categories and plan to share lemons, limes and grapefruits on another post.

The illustrations I am sharing below were primarily used on labels for orange juice. The others were used for beverages, baby food, Popsicles and jam.

Most of these paintings were rendered with markers and colored pencils and others were created with watercolor dyes. I share more about creating the orange peel texture using airbrush acrylics and a glazing technique at my other blog link below:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/317/

© 2013 by Judy Unger, http://www.myjourneysinsight.com and 20 Lines A Day. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Judy Unger with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

March 7, 2013
by Judy 2 Comments

FAVORITE FLORALS – PART 2

For this post, I am sharing some of my favorite floral paintings. I begin with an illustration of a rose bouquet that was used on the cover of a paperback romance novel. I have included the art director’s layout, as well as the printed book cover.

When I illustrated a billboard for Conroy’s Flowers, I painted each letter approximately 10 inches tall. I photographed numerous trays of flowers to serve as photo reference and created collages from those photos to assist me.

My illustrations of six floral groups below, were printed on vinyl that adhered to windows. The company that commissioned them was called “Color Clings.”

Pansy Group

These other paintings are from miscellaneous commercial assignments over the course of my art career.

My technique for these paintings involved markers, watercolors, dyes and/or colored pencils; these were created before Photoshop existed. I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

February 17, 2013
by Judy 1 Comment

FAVORITE FLORALS – PART 1

I have always loved illustrating flowers. Using watercolor/dyes, I loved replicating exquisite colors and textures. Sometimes, a touch of colored pencil added details that worked perfectly. I was also captivated by the beauty of water droplets.

My first floral painting was inspired by a photo that I saw in a magazine. It was a wonderful exercise for me. After that, I worked solely from my own photography. The second painting was commissioned by People Magazine twenty years ago. Later on in my career, both of these paintings were marketed as posters. It was not a lucrative venture at all, but was definitely exciting for me to have prints to display of my work. I share below my job layout, drawings, printed pieces and my photo reference.

Flower Medley closeup 1

My job layout for People Magazine. I rendered the graduation tassel and hat separately.

The art director’s layout for my People Magazine floral illustration. I rendered the graduation tassel and hat separately.

I did not notice that this flower was missing a petal when I painted it!

My actual photo reference.

Both of these paintings were done before Photoshop existed. I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

© Judy Unger, http://www.myjourneysinsight.com and 20 Lines A Day. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Judy Unger with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

February 8, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

HOLY BAGELS!

In 2000, I became quite familiar with bagels when I painted two-dozen of them. My illustrations were used on packaging for Lender’s Bagels.

The art director wanted each bagel to have its own character. Many of the bagel flavors had different contours; some were rounder and others were more oval. Through experimentation, I discovered that markers and colored pencil worked best to create realistic illustrations. I added small amounts of acrylic to create details such as sesame, poppy seeds and highlights. I have included some close-ups of my illustrations.