Introduction

Hi! This is Spaghetti Doodles.

In this tutorial I'll be showing you guys how I draw food. This is in no way the right method of drawing food, it’s just my method.

 

Basic shapes

First thing I do is create a new canvas. I'm using a 17x14 inch illustration canvas with a image resolution of 300. Keep in mind I used inches, not pixels.

First thing to do is break down whatever your drawing into basic shapes. For this tutorial I'm drawing a burger.

 

 

 

A burger is basically made up of a semi-circle on top, and two oddly shaped rectangles.

When breaking down objects into simple shapes, don’t overthink. It’s not supposed to by fancy or looks good. It’s just to help get the basic overall shape of the object you intend to draw.

It’s also very helpful to use references when drawing food.

 

Basic sketch

The next thing to do is sketch out our burger. I use a cartoon style when drawing food, so mine is slightly exaggerated. Depending on your personal style, you can exaggerate proportions and play with details untill you like the sketch.

 

First, create a new layer and lower the opacity to about 30 percent. Create a new layer on top of this, and begin to sketch out your burger.

 

For both the basic shapes and sketch I'm using the mapping pen in a dark blue.

Once again, this is not the final drawing, so down worry about getting everything exact. You just need a good enough idea of where the lines ought to be, so that we can complete the next step.

Line art

For the line art, Im still using the Mapping pen, and keeping the stabilization at 100 percent. But now Im changing the color of my pen to black, and changing the settings slightly.

In the last few steps we weren't focused on making the lines straight or the illustration perfect. But with the line art we need to do exactly that.

 

Create a new layer above the current layer, and change the opacity of the layer underneath to around 19 percent. I recommend completely hiding the basic shapes layer, seeing as we no longer need it.

 

On the layer we just created, I did the line art for the sesame seeds. I recommend making several layers for each part of the line art, to enable easy erasing and redrawing.

So I make a separate layer for each part of the drawing. One for the sesame seeds, one for the burger, one for the bun, etc.

 

My layers now look like this.

Once you've created the line art, go through each layer and erase any lines that may overlap another layer, or any that aren't supposed to be there.

 

 

You can now hide the basic shapes layer and the sketch layer, and we are left with our beautiful line art.

Coloring

The first thing I do when coloring is change the color of the line art. You can do this by going to the line art layer and changing the layer color.

 

I changed my line art to a dark red color, which will look more natural with the coloring(in my opinion.)

This step is completely optional, and once again refers to your specific style and taste.

 

 

My line art now looks like this.

The next thing I do when coloring is filling the basic colors. I do no shading in this step, simply adding the basic colors.

 

Create a new layer and place it underneath the line art layer. I then use the bucket tool to fill in the basic colors.

My colors look like this. And I did all the colors on the same layer, which makes my method of shading possible.

I also didnt make my colors super vibrant, but thats completely optional.

 

Shading

I have a very simple and quick way of shading. I dont make it super complicated, and this illustration is cartoon, so it doesn't have a lot of texture.

 

First thing, I make a new layer above the coloring layer, and set it to "clip at the layer below." This means that the coloring on this layer wont be seen unless theres coloring on the layer below it. It keeps me from having to erase around the burger when im done.

I also set the layer mode to multiply. This makes the color I use darker.

My layer settings look like this.

I shade with a light, vibrant purple. When I use this purple on a normal layer it looks very odd. But when I set the layer to multiply it adds a lighting effect to the layer, and makes the purple much darker.

I then use the selection tool, and fill the areas I want to be shaded.

My light source will be located in the upper right hand corner of the illustration.

 

This is what it should look like (if you use a purple color.)

From here you can adjust the opacity of this layer to get the desired look. I lowered mine to about 50 percent.

Highlights

The thing to remember with highlights, is they will always be located the opposite of where your shadows are. So if my shadow is to the right, then my highlights will be towards the left.

 

Create a new layer and place it about the coloring layers. For this step I once again use the Mapping pen and just a white color. This step simply adds some shine and realism to the illustration.

My highlights are extremely minimal.

Finishing up

The last thing I did was add my signature, and added a polka dot background.

This is the finished project!!

Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial and at learned something from it. Again, this is not the right way, or the perfect way, just the way I do it. Be sure to experiment and play around and make it your own!

I would recommend exporting this as a PNG, as it will keep more of your original colors.