Illustration Portfolio

Yaansoon is the artist alias of a freelance digital and pen-and-ink illustrator who produces culturally informed illustrations for clients, art directors and graphic designers looking for food illustration, travel illustration, illustrated maps, and women empowerment artwork with a multi-cultural Mediterranean feel. Having travelled to over 20 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, she brings some of that exposure into her illustrations, which transmit an acute attention to cultural flavour.

With multi-cultural roots that include Moroccan and European ancestry, Yaansoon is currently based in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region), with clients in Italy and the UK.

The Italian Trade Agency - ITA (Agenzia ICE), a governmental department part of the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministero dello sviluppo economico).

Italian book publisher, Sellerio Editore.

UK-based DIFD Inclusive, part of the British government's Department for International Development (DFID).

London-based Italian restaurant, La Mia Mamma.

Illustration Technique: Yaansoon usually works in pen and ink, producing linear drawings which she then digitises to complete her artwork with a Wacom Cintiq tablet. Now and again she’ll experiment with collage, introducing different royalty-free photos and textures into her illustrated compositions. She also likes to incorporate different analogue mediums into her digital artwork, including gouache and watercolour, which are also scanned and digitised to fit into her final artwork. The artist works with Adobe Photoshop as her main go-to illustration software. Depending on the scale of the project, she occasionally produces artwork using Adobe Illustrator, as well as natural-media software, Corel Painter Essentials 5.

Illustration Style: Yaansoon’s style is culturally informed and inspired by a combination of influences, mainly travel, cultural curiosity, and her keen interest in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food culture, folk handcrafts and tribal heritage. These include handmade Moroccan, Tunisian, and Italian ceramics, hand-stitched and hand-woven tribal and Levantine textiles, hand-stamped Italian kitchen linens, and hand-carved Syrian and Lebanese wooden furniture, marquetry, and intricate inlays.