By Emily Colledge of @sugar_coated_canvas
Hello! It’s Emily of @sugar_coated_canvas and I’m here today to share how to create—or more specifically, illustrate—the perfect meal for the holiday season using recipe art. These recipe art cards are perfect to have on display during your next holiday get-together. I was so excited when Zebra Pen asked me to team up with them to create this blog post. I love combining food and art. Let’s get started!
Appetizer Recipe Art
The holidays are such a great time to bring family together. For the appetizer dish recipe art, I decided to go with a cranberry and brie pull-apart bread. To me, nothing screams holiday season like cranberries and cheese. It is a quick, elegant appetizer that’s sure to please any crowd—and with the cranberries in the recipe, it has so much fun color.
I wanted to add depth and make the colors really stand out, so I used Zebra Sarasa Fineliners to crosshatch some of the shadows. I love how these pens feel when they glide along the paper. They even worked beautifully on my rough watercolor paper! I am also amazed at the variety of colors offered. I was always able to find the color and shade I had in mind. I am not the only one obsessed with these pens. My husband tries to steal them and take them to work.
Main Dish Recipe Art
For an illustrated recipe of the main course, the first thing I thought of was to go for a ham or turkey recipe—after all, this is one of my family’s very favorite recipes. I'm always excited to serve it. To create this recipe, I started off by lightly sketching out the ingredients and adding the instructions. Then, I used the Zebra Zensations Technical Pen to make all of it pop off the page and grab your attention. The pen has a rich, dark pigment and conveniently has many different sized tips. I used the 0.3 size for the instructions and the 0.5 size for the title.
Dessert Recipe Art
Finally, for dessert, what is more classic than sugar cookies? This recipe makes a good amount of dough that doesn't spread out too much when baked. I had so much fun designing my own cookies on this fun recipe. Once again, in this recipe I used both the amazing Sarasa Fineliners and my trusted Zensations Technical Pen. I use the Zensations line on almost every project I work on. With the extra little details, like highlights on the sprinkles, I used the Sarasa Clip Gel Retractable Pen. They glide on the paper and can create the tiny details I couldn't with a paintbrush.
I really tried to enhance my recipe illustrations with these pens. I used crosshatching with both the Sarasa Fineliners and Zensations Technical Pen—and it gave my shadows more depth. I loved the style it brought to my work. I couldn’t have created these fun recipes without all of these pens, but especially the versatile Sarasa Fineliners —they are a must have!
Happy creating, and happy holidays! For more art inspiration, check out Zebra’s tutorial on How to Draw a Fennec Fox with Zebra Pen Metallic Brush Pens.
