food illustration | 20 Lines A Day

May 14, 2013
by Judy 4 Comments

FEELING PEACHY

For over thirty years, I’ve illustrated food. I loved the challenge of rendering fruit; each variety had beautiful colors and textures to capture.

With peaches, I always used an opaque medium (usually colored pencil) for the reflected light at the edges of the fruit. This gave the impression of “fuzz” because opaque mediums have a bluish cast.

This was one of my earliest jobs of my career. The fruit is very stylized here.

The illustrations I am sharing below were used on labels to indicate peach flavor for bath soap, baby food, sour candy, tea, yogurt, beverages, jam, wine cooler and sorbet.

This illustration is currently on jars of Beechnut Baby Food.

Just for fun, I’ve included some other fruit images in addition to peaches on labels groupings.

A marker layout in progress.

Before creating my final painting, I always provided sketches to my clients.

This was a recent illustration.

Remarkable Labels
Randall's Jams 6

These paintings were rendered with markers, colored pencils and/or watercolor dyes. My motto is “whatever works.” I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

© 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.

May 4, 2013
by Judy 3 Comments

STRAWBERRIES

For over thirty years, I’ve illustrated food. I loved the challenge of rendering fruit; each variety had beautiful colors and textures to capture. With strawberries, I learned how to replicate the pattern of tiny hives crisscrossing each berry. They looked more realistic when I painted shadows and highlights around each hive.

The illustrations I am sharing below were used on labels to indicate the strawberry flavor for yogurt, juice, jam, milk, liqueur and sorbet. I’ve included some close-ups.

Painting a splash was probably one of the hardest things I’ve illustrated.

This illustration was early in my career, before I learned better techniques for capturing the strawberry texture.

The strawberries here were supposed to be simpler and less realistic. This was used on a liquid bath soap label.

Some of these paintings were rendered with markers and colored pencils and others were created with watercolor dyes. All 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

March 18, 2013
by Judy 3 Comments

APRICOTS

I have been illustrating food since 1980. I especially enjoyed painting fruit, which I have been sharing on Twenty Lines. For this post, I am sharing my illustrations of apricots. These illustrations were used on packaging labels for yogurt, juice, jam and baby food.

All 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

March 9, 2013
by Judy 1 Comment

PLUMS AND POMEGRANATES

I have illustrated so many fruits, that it’s fun to select groups of them to share. I have been a food illustrator for over 30 years. For this post, I’ve chosen plums and pomegranates. These illustrations were used on labels for yogurt, baby food, juice, jam and vitamins.

Plums are similar to grapes with their powdery surface. I used a light gray colored pencil over my watercolor painting; the bluish cast was useful to portray that effect.

This painting was early in my career. Later on, I became much better at painting prunes. Compare this with my later illustration below.

Seeing these prunes close up, shows how abstract they become. There are many colors to be found within them. I especially loved the deep burgundy.

The pomegranates illustrated here were created later in my career. For the last few illustrations, I painted over a digital rendering that I generated on my computer and was definitely more photorealistic. The computer was extremely useful composing my painting and allowed for clients to give great input before I painted anything.

An example of my photo-reference shows how much improvement was needed!

I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

February 26, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

JUST GRAPE

I have been illustrating food since 1980. I especially enjoy painting fruit, which I continue to share on Twenty Lines. Each variety of fruit I rendered posed its own particular challenges. Below are many of my paintings of grapes, as well as close-ups. My grape illustrations were used on labels for yogurt, wine, juice, jam and vitamins.

When rendering grapes, I always looked for ways to capture the powdery surface on them. Using a colored pencil over a watercolor painting (once it was dry, of course) was very useful for this effect. Colored pencil was opaque with a bluish cast, which is why it worked so well.

All 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

February 22, 2013
by Judy 4 Comments

BLUEBERRIES

Blueberry illustration used on a beverage label.

As an artist, my niche was food illustration. It would probably be even more descriptive to say that I was a fruit illustrator.

This was used on Darigold Yogurt.

For this post, I’ve decided to share blueberries. Most of my illustrations were used on labels. Some examples of the products were yogurt, liqueur, sorbet, jam, juice and vitamins.

This was used for a non-stick spray can label.

A few of these paintings were rendered with markers and colored pencils. Others were created with watercolor dyes.

This was Blueberry Cooler flavor for Caprisun.

Blueberries Wet

This label was for blueberry jam.

This illustration was used on a yogurt label. At that time, I cropped the artwork but later on preferred to paint whole fruit.

This illustration was used on a yogurt label. I regretted cropping the artwork.

These actually are sloe berries, used in gin. But they resemble blueberries.

This illustration is of bilberries, and it was used on a herbal vitamin label.

This illustration is of bilberries, and was used on an herbal vitamin label.

All 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

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.

All 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

February 1, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

APPLE ILLUSTRATIONS

As an artist, my niche was food illustration. It would probably be even more descriptive to say that I was a fruit illustrator. I have certainly illustrated a lot of apples, and can even paint them from memory. Below are paintings of apples that were used on food packaging. There are a few close-ups, as well as a few printed labels.

Some of these paintings were rendered with markers and colored pencils. Others were created with watercolor dyes. All of my 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

January 30, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

NESTLE CRUNCH

My painting of a Nestle Crunch Bar became my first promotional piece as an illustrator. It was printed on a postcard, which I handed out to art directors at agencies all over Los Angeles. I hand painted the lettering, but later in my career I learned methods to create more perfect lettering by using rubdown type. As an artist, I enjoyed rendering textures and discovering the many shades of brown in chocolate. This painting was created with watercolor dyes, before there was Photoshop. Some close-ups are below.

I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

January 28, 2013
by Judy 2 Comments

GOING NUTS

I want to share my paintings of nuts and have thought of a few puns related to them:

Painting nuts got me “out of my shell” and I tried not to “crack up.” All those details made me “nuts.”

My paintings were commissioned assignments of illustrations that were used on labels. The smaller almonds were for a liqueur label, the peanut butter and mixed nut medleys were for a supermarket brand and the rest were created for a company named Azar Nuts.

I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

January 4, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

SNICKER’S BAR

One of my favorite paintings from my career as an illustrator was of a Snicker’s Bar. I admit that I nibbled on my samples after photographing them.

I had my painting printed on thousands of postcards, which I mailed all over the country. It was an excellent promotional piece because Art Directors always told me that it made them hungry.

My painting was created with watercolor dyes, before there was Photoshop. Some close-ups are below.

Below is my reference photo and tracing that were part of my working process as an artist.

I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

© 2103 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.

December 30, 2012
by Judy 1 Comment

DESSERT MEDLEY

I am excited to share another painting on 20 lines, which I’ve named Dessert Medley. Painting delicious food always intrigued me. The many colors that could be found in whipped cream (beyond white) were fun to discover. Dusted sugar and strawberry hives required a toothpick.

I always photograph my reference before painting them. I admit that choosing delicious food has advantages, because there are leftovers once I’ve taken my pictures!

My photo reference – not nearly as beautiful!

This painting was created with watercolor dyes, before there was Photoshop. Some close-ups are below.

I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:

http://foodartist.wordpress.com

© 2012 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.

20 Lines A Day

A Community of Writers and Photographers

Tag Archives: food illustration

FEELING PEACHY

STRAWBERRIES

APRICOTS

PLUMS AND POMEGRANATES

JUST GRAPE

BLUEBERRIES

HOLY BAGELS!

APPLE ILLUSTRATIONS

NESTLE CRUNCH

GOING NUTS

SNICKER’S BAR

DESSERT MEDLEY

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