raisins | 20 Lines A Day

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

© 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.

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.