Behind the Scenes: How I create my recipe illustrations

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know I love to cook and eat simple and healthy meals.

I enjoy sharing the recipes I love, and illustrated recipes are a great way to combine my two passions!

I shared this Zucchini Pasta with Avocado Sauce recipe last week and documented my creative process for the Instagram Story (BTW, I’m really enjoying this feature a lot!)

It was fun to share the process with my followers and thought you might enjoy a little peek, too!

Zucchini pasta recipe creative process — I usually work with pen and ink on paper. Here is the lettering for the title. I’m using a Pigma Micron pen (black, size 01) and Canson Mixed Media sketchbook here.

Zucchini pasta with avocado sauce illustrated recipe process — I have a rough layout in mind when I draw my recipes. Recipes that don’t involve a ton of ingredients and steps are easier to create. And those are recipes I love to cook anyway!

Zucchini pasta with avocado sauce recipe illustration process — I hand write all the texts. I try to make it legible and easy to follow.

Coloring the drawing with my favorite markers: Sakura Koi Brush Pens!

Zucchini pasta with avocado sauce illustration recipe process — Coloring done! I like to use only a handful of colors to keep it simple. For this illustration, red and orange tomatoes look great against the green tones.

Then I scan the image in to edit/manipulate it in Photoshop. This is why I don’t stress too much about layout and mistakes when I draw my recipe on paper. Thank you Photoshop 😀

And it’s ready to post! Hooray!

Hope you enjoyed my behind the scenes creative process today 🙂

p.s. I’m leaving for Japan tomorrow to visit my parents for two weeks 🙂 I’ll be taking a break from my blog next week but will give you my travel report when I get back!

xo Yuko