label illustrations | 20 Lines A Day

June 19, 2013
by Judy 2 Comments

LETTUCE EAT SALAD

For over thirty years, I’ve illustrated food. I wanted to name my post “turning over a new leaf,” because I’ve embraced music as my passion now. But I chose a different title because I am still illustrating food. I also enjoy sharing the many illustrations that I have created over the course of my career.

Not a salad, but colorful and fun to share. This illustration was commissioned for a cafeteria company.

For me, illustrating salad was a joy. The textures and colors intrigued me and reference was readily available. The challenges for me were the non-organic elements, such as bowls, plates, and bottles. Two of the earliest jobs of my career were for California’s Iceberg Lettuce Commission. I created two posters and later on a brochure.

The instructions for those illustrations were clearly outlined by the art. It was always helpful for me to receive such precise instructions to follow. Below, I share examples of marker sketches that were very important before I proceeded to final paintings. I hated to make changes to final art and the marker sketch gave me useful feedback, as well as reassuring the clients as to how my illustration would appear.

This is an example of another usage for my illustration purchased through a stock agency.

This is an example of my salad poster painting in progress. It was actually a teaching example from the time when I was an instructor.

This painting in progress shows my watercolor technique. I did this as an example when I was an art instructor.

This is a marker sketch.

This is the printed poster.

On a project for Borden, I photographed my own hand – I thought it would be easy to create the fingernail, even though I didn’t have a long one. The art director made a comment, “Hand looks too heavy, can you make it more slender?” OUCH!

I especially enjoyed working for Ready Pac, Co. My first illustration was for their Spinach Salad Kit. I was only required to illustrate the package elements, not the salad.I completed the marker comp and received delayed feedback that the dressing needed to be lighter and more translucent. The client wanted the spices to be visibly floating in the dressing. I had already begun painting, so I stopped what I was working on and began again. I had to take new reference photos to help me. Solving the texture for the croutons was fun for me. I used colored pencils to achieve the “roughness.”

I always gave my clients choices with sketches. It’s much easier with a computer now!

I ended up making the dressing more transluscent.

This is a marker sketch.

An example of my photo reference.

Subsequent jobs for Ready Pac incorporated my own unique digital process. I worked with my computer to create something that I could lightly print out onto watercolor paper. I painted over the print with watercolors.

I share now more illustrations for salad packaging that I created over the span of my career.

An example of my job layout.

A close up.

I have a lot more information about my illustration career on my blog “Illustrating My Life,” which can be found at this link:

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.

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/

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

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

April 8, 2013
by Judy Leave a comment

SUPERSOIL ILLUSTRATIONS – PART 1

For this post, I am sharing illustrations I painted for a soil company called Supersoil. Several years ago, Supersoil Inc. merged into Miracle Grow and the packaging with my illustrations were no longer available. There were unique challenges for every painting and I searched through my neighborhood with my camera to find beautiful gardens I could photograph. When I completed this project, I enjoyed seeing my paintings printed on the large bags of soil sold in many home improvement stores.

For this first post, I share about four projects I painted. I have included close-ups, sketches, marker comps and even the original layout provided for me.

The first painting was for a potting soil mix and I illustrated a pot filled with flowers.

This second illustration was for a product called “Wonderbloom.”

This is my layout provided by the art director.

This is a preliminary marker sketch.

This illustration was for a product called “Palm and Cactus Mix.” I followed the art direction, which had a strange request for a “door going nowhere.” The strange perspective makes me uncomfortable, but my favorite part of my painting is the small lizard in the shadows (I had lizards as pets when I was younger!)

The lizard is there!

The last assignment for this post was for a product used on sod lawns called “Turf Fit.” This painting includes a dog, and it is one of the few animals I’ve illustrated.

My photo referene of sod was not very pretty to paint!

My photo reference of sod shows that it was not very pretty to paint!

My technique utilizes watercolors, dyes and 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

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

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.