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Monday, April 4, 2011

My Food Section Illustration

When I started working for the St. Petersburg Times, it was long enough ago that clip art was not pervasive, and I would actually create illustrations, as well as design ads. This illustration in acrylics was the cover for a multi-page tabloid of readers' favorite recipes.


I achieved an interesting texture by painting on a matte board that was pebbled to look like burlap. As you can see in the detail, I applied the acrylic paint thinly, like a watercolor, allowing the surface texture of the board to show through.

The title of the section was printed over the tan square at the top.

When I choose colors for a painting — any painting — I tend to think in terms of edible colors! I want a buttery yellow, a tomato red, or a crisp green. So I suppose painting food comes naturally.

Bon appetit!

9 comments:

  1. Tims have certainly changed, haven't they Mark. I like your idea of edible colours! Especially where pictures of food are concerned

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  2. Hi Mark, Nice art work. It's not easy to make fruit and vegetables look like the real thing. Interesting the way you thinned the acrylics and painted onto burlap.

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  3. David, choosing edible colors has always worked for me. I think we could get a big grant and do a study on that whole line of thought.

    Thanks, Gina! But I wasn't actually painting on burlap - I was painting on the paper surface of matte board, a surface that was printed and embossed to resemble burlap.

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  4. This is so beautiful that you should have something like it in your kitchen, maybe like a Fornasetti or Archimboldo face done in vegetables and stalks of grain.

    I am also partial to greens which are mossy or the colour of a bell pepper. Ever notice how rubber garden hoses are the totally wrong colour of green on the lawn? Most plant greens are more olive, like a uniform. I also love tomato red, or orange-reds, or Chinese reds...they sing, especially next to blue or yellow!

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  5. Thanks, Terry. I've thought about doing an Archimboldo face. Since I live in Florida, perhaps I should do it as seashells instead of vegetables.

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  6. What a wonderful illustration. No clip art could ever achieve this effect!!

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  7. Thank you, Stacey, you are very kind.

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  8. Oh Mark! You simply have to paint an Archimboldo inspired piece! I do love the textured board you were working on. It really makes the work look vintage.

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  9. Thanks, Theresa. That's two votes for Archimboldo - I guess I better get busy!

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