Like feeling the breeze on your face or the kick of a bass drum through your soul, the taste and texture of food is something everyone can relate to. Enjoying a meal is an integral part of what it means to be human. For many illustrators, food is a huge source of inspiration and researching this article was nothing less than a delicious experience – for the eyes, if not the mouth.
With pointers from Creative Boom readers, we tracked down five leading food illustrators from diverse backgrounds, located in various parts of the world, and working in distinct styles. We wanted to find out more about how they work, how they think and what it is about food that inspires their creativity.
It takes talent to create culinary imagery that makes viewers salivate; therefore, we believe food illustration will always be in demand. In packaging, illustration adds a layer of creativity that elevates the product in ways photography may not be able to achieve. The style of the artwork can be tailored to ensure that boxes, cans, jars, and bottles of food are uniquely designed for the client, while making a connection with wholesome nutrition, fresh produce, original recipes, home cooking, and handmade creativity.
More than that, every food illustrator in the world has something that AI art applications don’t. And that’s the ability to taste and truly experience any dish. As an artist and a food enthusiast, you understand how food can evoke emotions in people. It’s something that just can’t be simulated. So, let’s eat up!
Alice Oehr
“My passion for food led me to fall heavily into working in that space, splashing it across books, campaigns, artwork and products. Lots of personal work I have done about food has allowed me to attract more client work in that space with absolutely no complaints from me,” says Alice Oehr.
For this Melbourne illustrator, the key to creating appealing culinary imagery is to bring out the graphic qualities of the food, using forms, patterns and textures. By simplifying, exaggerating and stylising certain aspects of the visual, she finds something new and fun in there, and presents it with a bit of polish. “Most important is the element of play, I think. Food is fun, and when illustration, not photography, is the medium, I feel like it’s my duty to be playful with the outcome.”
You’ll see this sense of fun writ large in Alice’s food murals, food art exhibitions, food books and client work. Often, the genius in her work lies in its simplicity – brightly coloured forms, lines, scribbles, patterns, and textures suddenly transform into beautiful plated dishes of bright red tomatoes and freshly fried fish.
However, the simplicity belies the hard work that goes into the process, which involves both handmade and digital techniques. “I draw or hand-cut all my elements, then assemble them digitally in Adobe Illustrator. I love the hard lines of vectors, paired with the organic lines of something like oil pastel, so my work usually involves a combo of these things. I sometimes love to add digital touches like a gradient or halftone dots, which speak specifically to digital media, but I avoid using digital brushes because I enjoy the physical act of using these tools, and I like how they don’t come out the same every time – they will surprise you in the way digital brushes will not,” says Alice.
Muhammed Sajid
Based in Bangalore, India, illustrator Muhammed Sajid creates surreal, imaginative compositions, often with wild colour palettes and plenty of energy. Food often features in his work – either as the main focus or as secondary detail – and there’s an interesting reason for this.
“I got into food illustration through my love of still life. When I’m bored or blocked, I return to drawing food. It resets me,” says Sajid. “Food allows me to choose simple, striking subjects, and I usually focus on the finished dish rather than individual ingredients, because one plate can tell the whole story at a glance.”
Sajid makes the dish the hero of the composition, with a strong silhouette. Then, working digitally, he adds in the lighting and textures so that the image speaks to the viewer – gloss on the gravy, crumbs by the bread, steam rising from hot plates.
Tasting the food is important to Sajid, but he’s not one for cooking. His process begins with collecting reference and mood imagery. Then his focus is on the composition. “Sometimes I also work physically with poster colour or markers on paper, it adds a tactile, handmade energy and happy imperfections that suit bold, graphic food studies, then I scan and lightly refine if needed,” he adds.
Anna Farba
For over a decade, Anna Farba has been obsessed with painting food and plants in her Vancouver studio. It’s what she loves, and it’s a worthwhile pursuit, attracting clients in the publishing, packaging, health and beauty, and homeware industries. Her Harvest Dessert Plates for Anthropologie are the bomb!
For Anna, experiencing food is as important as the image itself. She regularly visits farmers’ markets, and photographs and tastes the local cuisine wherever she travels. “Whenever I paint ingredients for packaging, I aim to capture more than just their likeness,” says Anna. “I focus on their texture, colour, and mood, aiming to convey the personality of each ingredient while also creating a cohesive look for the entire series for the final product.”
The use of watercolour always lends Anna’s food imagery an extra layer of craft and a sense of natural beauty. She often discusses with clients why the medium is so well-suited for the food industry.
“I love working in watercolour because of its flowing nature—it can be both accidental and precise at the same time. Watching colours blend and create unexpected textures is always mesmerising,” says Anna. “I also focus on the hand-painted quality of my work, something my clients often request, as it brings a unique warmth and character that digital methods can’t replicate.”
Steven Tang
Steven Tang is a self-taught artist dedicated to celebrating Hong Kong’s culinary identity through the most vivid and realistic coloured pencil drawings you’ll ever see. While other artists create imagery that moves us emotionally and intellectually, the realism of Steven’s approach has a visceral effect. It. Is. Mouthwatering.
The talent Steven expresses is backed by a great deal of hard work to achieve the desired effect. “I love reinventing compositions and keep experimenting with different angles and arrangements. Sometimes, I’ll also amplify the contrast of the artwork to enhance dimensionality and employ varied strokes to simulate surfaces, from glossy sauces to crispy crusts,” says Steven.
Visiting restaurants, photographing dishes, sketching compositions, analysing the colours and textures – the process for an image may take several days, or even months. In 2018, Steven caught the eye with his coloured pencil drawings of Tam Jai noodles – Hong Kong’s favourite comfort food. His exhibitions of hyper-realistic food artwork in ArtspaceK and Touch Gallery have sold out.
As well as creating artworks, Steven teaches art in Hong Kong and sells imagery as prints and postcards. We reckon it’s only a matter of time before he’s illustrating for top food, drink and hospitality clients.
Adrian Bauer
“For me, illustration is like cooking – I love both, and I even once dreamed of becoming a chef,” says Berlin-based illustrator Adrian Bauer. “You mix different ingredients, whether colours or food, to create something entirely new. In the end, it’s about conveying a flavour and a mood, making a feeling tangible.”
Adrian is inspired by infographics, New Objectivity, Minimal Realism and the idea of creating a visual language. To use an analogy, when creating a food illustration, Adrian tries to boil the subject down to its essence – the geometry, textures and colours that reflect the materiality and character of the food. He likes the idea of cutting food open, seeing what’s inside and studying it, whether or not it feeds into the finished work.
A fructose intolerance gives Adrian a unique perspective on food, as he is so focused on certain ingredients for health reasons. “It means I experiment a lot with different foods and ways of preparing them,” explains Adrian. “Normally, I don’t cook a dish just because I’m illustrating it for a commission, but once I actually bought a lobster to study and draw its anatomy in detail. The bonus: lobster for dinner.”
Can AI take work away from human illustrators? “AI visuals feel like fast food to me. They might be convenient in the moment and look fine at first, but deep down, you know they’re not good for you in your tummy. It’s better to take the time to cook or draw,” says Adrian.
