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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
I am excited to share another painting on 20 lines, which I’ve named Coca Cola Classic. Painting ice and soda was very abstract and interesting for me.
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:
I am excited to share another painting on 20 lines. I remember eating Brach candies with my grandmother and I especially loved the Neapolitan ones (with the brown, white and pink colors).
The painting above 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:
It has been my pleasure to share my song lyrics and poetry on 20 Lines.
All of my life, I have been an artist. For over thirty years, I was commercial illustrator. I am excited to share some of my paintings on 20 lines. I have a blog where I describe my technique and have a lot more information. It is at:
The painting above was created with watercolor dyes, before there was Photoshop. I photographed those bottles before painting them and my reflection while holding a camera can be seen below:
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: 
