North African Mediterranean Food Illustration: Eclectic Flat Lay Table

Here are two vector illustrations I created a couple of years ago of North African Mediterranean Food. I’m keeping them on my blog for nostalgic reasons.

I created this North African Mediterranean food illustration for my About page when I first launched this site late 2016. This is one of my earliest works, and although I feel it does not represent how I have evolved as an illustrator over the past couples of years, I still have a special place for these illustrations in my heart.

The tagline of my blog is “The Illustration Blog of a Nomadic Mediterranean Foodie,” and so I thought I’d create an illustration that reflected some aspects of the Mediterranean lifestyle, with focus on North African patterns and eclectic and colourful aesthetic. I also wanted to create a mixed-media piece that included my watercolour illustrations as part of this digital artwork. To create a collage-style look, I used royalty-free photos to create textures that reminded us of the Middle Eastern and North African aesthetic, an example being the kilim in the host’s sleeves.

The second illustration (above) has more of a rustic feel. I wanted it to reflect a mood of Northern-Southern Mediterranean fusion. Again, both illustrations were part of an earlier phase in my illustration journey; most of my artwork these days is based on a pen-and-ink outline with other mediums like watercolour and gouache.

Illustration Technique: I used Adobe Illustrator to create the vector illustrations in this post. Some of the elements included here are analogue artwork created using pen-and-ink on paper as well as watercolour. That being said, my food illustration technique is no longer dependent on Adobe Illustrator. Nowadays, I produce most of my artwork using raster software such as Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop with the help of a Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 tablet. I also use Procreate on iPad Pro for some of my sketches and as part of my illustration process. Generally, I do incorporate analogue elements in most of my artwork, such as pen-and-ink, watercolour washes, gouache, markers, etc. Please don’t hesitate to check out my digital tools, and my analogue ones for more inspiration.