There’s a reason we can all connect over food. Whether it’s the wind brushing your cheek or the thump of a bass drum rattling your ribs, taste and texture belong to that same universal language. A good meal doesn’t just fill the stomach—it nourishes memory, culture, and imagination. For many illustrators, food has become more than fuel; it’s a playground of forms, colours, and stories. Researching this piece was a feast in itself—if not for the palate, then certainly for the eyes.
With tips from Creative Boom’s readers, we went digging for artists across continents and styles, united by a single passion: making you crave a picture as much as the dish itself. From playful graphics to hyper-realistic pencil drawings, here are five illustrators who remind us why food illustration never goes out of fashion.
Illustration, after all, has something photography can’t always deliver. It can exaggerate, stylise, and inject personality into packaging, cookbooks, and campaigns. It creates space for warmth, humour, nostalgia, and originality. And above all—it carries a secret weapon no AI generator can mimic: the human experience of actually tasting the dish. Let’s tuck in.
Steven Tang — Hyper-Real Cravings from Hong Kong
If realism can make you hungry, Steven Tang’s coloured-pencil drawings might just send you running to the nearest noodle shop. Based in Hong Kong, he recreates the city’s comfort foods with astonishing detail, from glossy broths to crispy crusts.
His process is meticulous—sketching, photographing, analysing textures, then layering strokes until the page all but breathes steam. In 2018, his drawings of Tam Jai noodles caught widespread attention, leading to sold-out exhibitions. Today, he balances teaching art with sharing prints and postcards, but his true passion remains: honouring Hong Kong’s culinary identity, one painstaking drawing at a time.
Anna Farba — Watercolours with Soul from Vancouver
For over a decade, Anna Farba has filled her Vancouver studio with watercolours of fruits, herbs, and plated desserts. Her secret? She doesn’t just paint ingredients—she experiences them. From wandering farmers’ markets to tasting street food abroad, Anna treats food as a character with mood and personality.
Her flowing brushstrokes capture not just the look of produce but its essence: the velvety blush of a peach, the earthy shadow of a beetroot, the shimmer of a ripe tomato. “Watercolour can be precise yet accidental at once,” she says. “Those accidents often feel the most alive.”
Alice Oehr — Playful Plates from Melbourne
“I’ve fallen head over heels for food as a subject,” says Melbourne illustrator Alice Oehr, whose murals, books, and exhibitions burst with bold shapes and cheeky details. Her approach is to strip food down to its graphic essence—patterns, textures, and colours—then rebuild it with a playful twist.
For Alice, the magic lies in balancing hand-made charm with digital precision. She cuts or sketches each element by hand, then assembles everything in Adobe Illustrator, combining crisp vector lines with pastel smudges or cut-paper quirks. “Food is fun,” she insists, “and illustration should keep that joy alive.”
Muhammed Sajid — Surreal Servings from Bangalore
Bangalore-based Muhammed Sajid came to food illustration through still life drawing, and now uses it as a creative reset. When the ideas dry up, he turns to plates of steaming curry or freshly baked bread. “One dish tells the whole story at a glance,” he explains.
Sajid works primarily in digital, layering textures and light to make dishes pop—a gleam on gravy, crumbs scattered across a table, steam curling from the plate. But he often returns to markers and poster paint, enjoying the imperfections of handmade strokes before scanning them in. His work thrives on that mix of energy, bold colour, and imperfection.
Adrian Bauer — Minimalist Flavours from Berlin
Berlin illustrator Adrian Bauer compares drawing to cooking: both are about mixing ingredients—colours, textures, ideas—into something fresh. Inspired by infographics and Minimal Realism, he reduces food to its essence, studying geometry and materiality like a chef dismantling a recipe.
A personal fructose intolerance sharpens his focus on ingredients. “I even once bought a lobster just to draw its anatomy in detail,” he laughs. “Dinner was a bonus.” For Bauer, illustration requires time and care, just like a proper meal. “AI art feels like fast food,” he says. “Quick, maybe satisfying at first, but hollow in the long run. Real work—like real cooking—has depth.”
More Than Just Pictures of Food
From Melbourne’s playful murals to Hong Kong’s pencil-drawn noodles, these five illustrators prove food art is as diverse as cuisine itself. Their work isn’t about imitation but interpretation—finding the flavours that can’t be tasted, only seen, and serving them in styles that photography or AI will never truly replicate.
Because at the end of the day, food illustration isn’t just about what’s on the plate. It’s about joy, memory, culture, and imagination—the true feast that makes us human.