Transcripts
1. What We'll Learn! :): You can draw cutie foodies with two simple steps. In this class, I will show you many examples, tips and tricks, and rules for illustrating cutie foods. You can apply these rules to virtually anything and make it super cute. We'll also talk about infusing your cuties with mood and story to make some extra fun and give them character. I'll walk you through four super cute and simple step-by-step examples that you can follow along with so you can see my process, get inspired, and then do it your way. What are you waiting for? Let's draw some cuties together.
2. The 3 Rules For Cuteness: Let's start the class off with a couple of rules for cutie foods, but remember that any rules in art are fun to break. So don't feel stuck with what I'm about to tell you and play around with it. We are instinctively programmed to find babies super cute, and we can easily translate this to food by humanizing it. Only one step is required to do so. These foods are kind of cute, but let's see what happens when we add one simple thing, simple eyes and a mouth. They turned super cute. Notice that the eyes are wildly space and a mouth is tiny and close to the eyes on each food. Also keep in mind that rounded edges are cuter than sharper edges because they feel less threatening. So smooth out most of your edges especially on foods with lots of sharp edges like this chocolate bar. If you look back at the previous examples, notice that one sharp edge is present especially in the cake, which did have sharp edges in the reference photo. But also notice that in this cookie, we have some sharp edges but because rest of it is rounded, it only gives a slight contrast and it's still cute. Know that the rules aren't written in stone and learn to break them when it's right to. The most important rule is very, very simple. In fact, it's just to keep it simple. When your food is more complex, it's more visual noise and less cute and it might take away from the important details like the eyes and the mouth. So simplify as much as you can. A simple way to do this is not to add any texture or excessive lines and to keep only the bare minimum needed to make it recognizable. Following these three simple rules will keep your food super cutie, and now let's learn how to use these concepts to draw any food you want using two simple steps.
3. The 2 Simple Steps: You can draw any food you want from a reference, if you follow two simple steps. The first step is to observe your reference and to understand it. You can break it down into the most important details and shapes to do so. This is coming down in one of two ways. In my previous You Can Draw Cute Animals class, we observed by breaking down our animals into simple shapes and sketch them out before simplifying and stylizing them. This helped to understand what the most important details of each animal were. If this is hard for you, you also have the option of tracing over your chosen subject to see what lines and shapes make it up. I go over all this in detail in my You Can Draw Anything class. If you're not comfortable drawing, this class will help you a lot. But most foods are very simple to draw an observe, so don't worry about it too much. We can employ both methods of sketching to observe or tracing. Or if you're a more experienced artist, you can observe without doing anything other than just looking at your subject. This is what I do. I also like to look at more than one reference at a time, and I don't like to copy what I see exactly. Let's take this chocolate chip cookie as an example. The first thing you will notice is that the main shape here is a circle. But if you look closer, you will see that it's a circle with a rounded and imperfect edges, and the chocolate chips within are also not circles, they're imperfect shapes. These imperfect shapes give it that trademark look of a crumbly cookie. These are the simple lines that make up the cookie that you can get from tracing it or drawing it out, and to notice this is extremely important because now we know what we need to include in our a cutie food to make it easily recognizable. Then we can move on to step two, which is to simplify it and stylize. I will show you how I drew this step-by-step in a future lesson so you can follow along. But for now, notice that the end result has the overall shape of a circle, but the edges are imperfect, and as are the chocolate chips, just like we observed. I took what I observed and made it my own, by adding a cute bite and lots of little details, but it does not look like the reference exactly. I did not copy anything. I just saw how it was made and did it my way. As an artist, you can improvise to your liking, by adding and removing details. This is super easy to do as long as you observe first. Notice I didn't include any of the wrinkles or shading because this would make it too complex. Now, let's see a couple more examples of me observing and then simplifying, and stylizing. In this first example, I observed an orange slice. This can get tricky because there's a lot going on where the face should be. Let's see how we can problem-solve by doing a few tries. In this first one, I put way too much detail within, and I even added a hand holding juice. It's just too complex to be cute. I try again. This time, no arms and no circle in the middle, and I don't draw out every detail in the face, especially around the eyes. It looks much better. But now, let's get a little more creative and make it even simpler. Instead of inking in the details in the middle, I paint them in without outlines. This orange slice looks the cuteness because there is less information and distraction from the face. The face is really the most important part in all your foods. You can easily troubleshoot any drawing you do like this and plan them out before you do a big one. You will see examples in future lessons. This is called Thumbnail Sketching. I go into detail on this topic in one of my short previous classes. That class also shows you how you can mind-map to come up with ideas, which is very useful for this class. Now, let's use these two simple steps to do a cupcake. To observe the details, I sketch it out loosely. But remember, you can also trace or do this in your head. Now, I can simplify and stylize. Notice how I've rounded out the bottom part and lowered the count of the folds on the rapper. I just slightly hint at them. I also made the cream more simple by making three simple folds, and I simplify the raspberry with simple circles. Adding a cutie face, the cupcake looks super kawaii. Notice how all the major details that are required for it to be recognizable were included but made simpler. Now, we observe a burger. There's a lot information and detail here. I sketch it out loosely to pay attention to what the shapes are. Then I'm ready to simplify and stylize, by drawing the general shape of the burger, but I make the middle part of it much smaller and only include a couple of things. Just by doing this one step, it is made much simpler and cuter. By adding a face, it looks super cute and complete. The two stages of observing and then simplifying and stylizing are super simple to do. Don't overthink it. Just do your best and you will make extremely adorable cuties. Let's talk about adding storing personality to our cuties.
4. Story & Mood: Just because you're cutie foods must be simple, doesn't mean they have to be boring. You can easily add emotions and stories to your pieces with tiny catches and a little bit of imagination. The easiest way to do this is to play with the facial expressions. You can say a lot with simple eyes and a mouth. For example, this first apple is simple, but you can tell it's happy. Just by giving it a frown, we make it's sad. Now this one looks tired. This one looks creepy in a funny way. This one is super excited. This one is sleeping by adding simple Zs and by giving it eyelashes, it's a girl. The next one is super cute, and by giving it a kitty mouth, it looks mischievous. The last one looks like he's amused. Eyebrows can give a lot of personality, just on overdo them. I went back to the third one and made him look like he's crying with simple lines and a puddle. Notice how each apple has a completely different personality just because of the way I drew the faces. Don't be afraid to play around with your illustrations. As you can see, there are infinite variations to the types of faces you can create. I encourage you to get out a piece of paper and try this out yourself. It's super fun to get playful with these, and little changes make a huge difference in mood and personality. There are also tons of styles this can be done in. Just be sure to keep it simple and whatever faces you choose. Also keeping the eyes far apart and the mouth tiny and close to them, really helps make it cute. In this example, you can see that just by giving this little guy big eyes and little lines under his eyes, he looks tired or shocked. Now this is super cute. But what if you want to tell more of a story? Well, you can just think creatively when it comes to your food or foods. For example, this illustration is humorous because he's trying to tan. But since ice cream is a frozen food, he is melting. Or how about this? Since there's more than one faces illustration, they can all interact and tell a story that way. You will see me do this in a future lesson with these QDPs, but the possibilities are unlimited. Like here, I did it with a plate full of breakfast foods, or even something as simple as this works. He looks even cuter because of his predicament. All of these examples are made with me playing around with the idea of ice cream and this going down with any food, just try brainstorming ideas and playing around. Just remember that your foods on have to be only cute. They can also have a mood or story behind them. It's up to you to get creative with that. A little touches will make all the difference. Another easy way to add a special touch of story or personality is to draw on some cute and simple accessories. There is no limit to the kinds you can use. There are a very easy way to give character to your cuties. Just be sure to keep them simple and don't overdo them. Now let's see examples of some cutie food illustrations that you can follow along with step-by-step. If you're going to draw with me, be sure to tweak facial expressions and little details to make the mood and the story to your liking. If you don't like to draw step-by-step, you already have all the tools you need to make any cutie foods you want with story and emotion. Just follow the three rules of cuteness and use it to simple steps. You can just skip to your assignment if you don't want to draw along with me and preferred to do it your way, but I think you'll learn a lot by observing how I do it. I can't wait to see what you guys create. Remember, you're only limited by your imagination. So let's start.
5. The Bitten Cookie Cutie: Our first subject will be this cookie. Remember how you observed it in the previous lesson. I know that the general shape is round. So this is where I start. A simple hack is do something round to trace around. I use masking tape, but you can also do this with a cup or plate or anything circular really. I start by drawing in the face, so that I know what the focal point is and can draw around it. Remember that you can play around with his expressions and do it your way. Next I sketch in a [inaudible] by drawing three loose half circles. This simple touchable give him more character and story, since he's still smiling, even though he's beaten, maybe it means he's happy with his life, even if it's not perfect or maybe that bad experiences just made him stronger. I don't know, but you get the point. Every little touch makes it more interesting to look at. I added chocolate chips all around. Notice I put some at the edges and they protrude from the cookie. This makes it look more dimensional and interesting. That's it for this sketch. Now we can ink. Simple, right? I use the [inaudible] brush pen, but you can use whatever you have. Just make sure it's waterproof if you're using watercolor on top, but if you're not, it doesn't have to be. In my experienced thick outlines make things cuter. That's really up to your personal style. So the cookie now reference it's imperfect and I make sure to do the same with our cookie, but you could even do a perfect circle and it will still look like a cookie. I make sure to draw over the chocolate chips and now I can draw them in. Notice how it also draw them in imperfectly. I also make it more dimensional by drawing simple lines that go down from the edges, the bite, and then follow the curve of the previous line. This little detail makes him look three-dimensional. Notice how all the chocolate chips are drawn playfully inorganically. Be sure to stay loose and just have fun with it. I also add little specks, give it a cute touch. This not on the reference, but I like this look and it's still recognizable. I ink in the eyes and the mouth and leave a highlight in the eyes by leading a small white lines and top-right corners. This isn't necessary, but if you do it, make sure that the highlights are in the same exact side on each eye. Next had little crumbs on the bite. Then him just by drawing imperfect shapes and seemingly I drew the chocolate chips but smaller. This gives him the feeling of being crumbly, which adds a nice touch. Now we're done inking. It can be easy to get carried away and add too much detail, but learn to stop yourself, especially with drawing cuties. Remember the simpler, the cuter? Now I'm going to add color using watercolor because it is my preferred medium. But you can use whatever you have or like to use to be sure to keep your colors light and simple. If you do want to learn more about watercolor painting, you should check out my first class, it teaches you all the basics you need to know to get started. If you're not going to use watercolor, you can stop watching here and go to the next lesson. I erased the pencil marks and start painting him with Adobe color that I mixed. Notice how my brush is small and this way can easily leave lots of white specks to give me a slight texture. Next, I darken my color with a little bit of brown and add a second layer around the edges, leaving the middle part the lightest. I also keep it loosened leaf specs for texture. Notice how I paint inside the bite a little darker to make it look more dimensional. Now I can paint in the chocolate chips. I used a dark brown, but I leave little specks of white to make it look shiny. Notice how in some parts of blood into the dough, because it's still wet. I like this effect and use it often may work. But if you don't, you can just use a hairdryer or wait for it to dry fully before adding on. Now I use plain water to wet the area under his eyes and a drop in some pink. This is called wet on wet and the paint will go every where the water is and no further. I liked the dissolved look, but you can also paint in his cheeks as circles or ovals or not do any at all. Next use a hairdryer to fully dry our cutie and then a white signal, broad- point gel pen to add little highlights all around. This really makes the piece pop and I use this white gel pen in almost all the work I do, I really recommend it for the last layer. Just don't overdo it by picking only a few areas to have little dots and lines. Now he's done. This little guy was super easy and fun to paint and if you decide to make him too, I can't wait to see your take on him. Notice that he looks nothing like the reference. That's because I used the reference to understand what a cookie looks like and to do it my way, not to copy. Now let's do a cutie donut.
6. The Healthy Doughnut Cutie: For this little guy, I didn't use one reference. I just googled doughnut with sprinkles and got a good idea of what they look like. For simple subjects like this, sometimes this is all you need to do and this is how I draw most of my cutie foods, unless it's something exotic and complex. This time I'm using the masking tape again to make a perfect circle. Then I draw out half a circle or oval from the edges at the bottom. Next I draw a circle in the middle and slightly above the center point in the first circle, and a curved line coming from the middle and following the top curve. This way the doughnut looks three-dimensional. Now that we have the basic shapes down, you can start sketching in the details like the face or accessories. I sketch in a simple bow with a circle, and two triangles and a cute face with pursed lips and hearts for eyes. Now my character is a girl and she's in love with something. Next I play with the bottom part of the first circle by making the lines wavy, and some come out more, which makes it look like the frosting is dripping. I also decided to add cute little legs by drawing simple rectangles that ended curve triangles. There are many ways in which this can be done. Just don't overdo it and keep it simple. Also sketching cute little hands by using curved lines, and then I sketch in a carrot, which I did just by observing a normal carrot. You can put whatever you want in her hands to signify that she loves that thing. I just thought it would be funny to make a healthy doughnut. Now we're ready to start inking. This time I'm using a disposable Zebra brush pen for the sprinkles, and I will use a emoji brush pen for the outline. This is because I like the contrast of thin lines for details and thick lines for outlines. Notice how the sprinkles are randomly spaced and rotated, and that I did break my rule about using only rounded edges. I wanted that slight contrast. Now I start inking in the rest of the doughnut. I use a gel pen to add highlights to the eyes and I make the bow more playful by curving the lines around it and adding little folds with simple curve lines. The outline of the frosting is waving on purpose, just be careful not to ink over the sprinkles and carefully go around them. I make the doughy part smooth for a nice contrast, and notice how I inked in the legs as a part of the dough, and the hands is part of the cream. Now I raise my sketch and it's time to paint. I loosely paint in the dough frosting and the carrot. Notice how I leave a lot of white of the page for character and texture like always. While the icing is wet, I drop in some pink for cheeks and let it spread naturally. Next I lose the pin and the bow and then the sprinkles which I make rainbow. Then I add a second loose layer on the icing and the body. Notice how I didn't go all the way to the edges in the second layer on the icing. This makes it feel shiny. I keep the middle part lighter by only going around the shape, and I also drop some orange into the pink bow to make the colors more harmonious with the carrot she's holding. You can lift the excess paint with a simple paper towel or a damped brush. I darken the inside part of the doughnut a little more, keeping the middle the lightest to make it dimensional. Now I'm ready for highlights. Using my white gel pen, I add little dots and lines in random parts of the piece. Notice how I comb the dots together and one circle is always a little bigger than the rest. This makes it look like it's shimmering. Now we're done. This cutie doughnut turned out extremely adorable and full of life. Her facial expression, the line variation, the carrot she's holding, and the way I loosely painted her, all work together harmoniously. But at their core, all of these things are very simple and you can easily do this with any food. Now let's do a cutie peas that have more than one face for even more story and character.
7. The Awkward Cutie Peas: Peas are super fun and really cute because of the idea of them being stuck together in one body. When there's more than one face on a food, you have so much opportunity to create stories and character, and I took advantage of that. I started out with this simple sketch of the scene. Notice how I picked only three peas, but you can always do more. Here's a comparison of the sketch and the final illustration. I just want you to see that you can always improvise and change things in the final piece, so don't feel married to your thumbnail sketch. Also, think of how you can get creative with the story behind these peas, or you can do it exactly like I did. It doesn't matter. Now, to start, we draw a long, curved line that slightly curves out at the ends. Next, draw three circles or however many you want on it. Then you can edit your initial lines to curl around the circles, or you can leave it like it was. That's up to you. Next, I sketch in the leaves at the end, keeping it simple, and draw a curved line around the circles again, but this time, in the middle of them. Now that I have the initial sketch, I can start adding the faces and accessories. This is when you think of the characters and what they're doing. The two peas on the left are in love, and the first one is kissing the second, and the last pea is a grumpy gentlemen, just by adding a mustache and a top hat. Maybe he's the girl's dad or another love interest, I don't know. It's just cute and interesting. Now you can start inking in. Just pay attention to what is on top and what is below. It's easy to make a mistake if you don't. Notice how I used the bitmoji brush pen for the outline because of the thick strokes and the zebra brush pen for their faces and finer detail because of the thin strokes. This is the same exact technique that we use in the doughnut. I also draw in little hearts between them during their size and shape. In the last moment of inspiration, I add a face to the shell of the peas. You can really add a face to anything. This give the peas even more personality as if this guy is just like, "What is happening in there?" This feel so awkward. Now, I erase the sketch and start painting. I use more than one type of green and let them blend on the page. Make sure to use concentrated amount of paint at the edges and around the bottom to give it a slight dimension. I also drop in pink into the cheeks. Notice how I like to use a slightly damp or thirsty brush to pickup excess paint and keep the peas light. Also, notice how I added very dark paint in the right and left corners within because that area will be in shadow. Next, I use a lighter green for the peas and keep it loose. I also use a thirsty brush to lighten some areas and keep it light. I drop in pink for the cheeks and paint in his cute little hat. Now, I start adding highlights with the gel pen, like I normally do, and I add little hearts with just paint and no ink around them. I also wanted to add one more layer of paint on the peas. If you add water to gel pen, it will smear, but it's fine to do since I didn't put any highlights there yet. This made them more dimensional. I finish off the piece by adding little dots there as well. The final piece is extra cute and overflowing with emotion and story. You can really have a lot of fun by drawing cutie peas. If you decide to draw these, I can't wait to see what stories you come up with. Now let's do a cute breakfast scene.
8. Breakfast Cuties: For this final illustration, I wanted to come up with a plate of breakfast foods, and I wanted them to interact with simple face expressions. I started out with this sketch thinking it was cute because it made a smiley face, but I wanted more foods on a plate. So I sketched this out but wasn't satisfied either. Then I sketched out this one. I was the happiest with it. Notice how I drew little arrows and crossed things out. You can do whatever you want with your sketches. At this stage, you're brainstorming so play with it. Here's a comparison between the final illustration and the final thumbnail sketch. As you can see, they're pretty similar but not exactly the same. Don't let your thumbnail sketches kill the creativity of the main piece, instead use them as rough guidelines. For this piece, I needed a bigger circle. I used a bowl by placing it upside down and tracing the outline. Then I traced inside the masking tape for a smaller circle in the middle. This is our simple plate. Next, I draw in the simple outlines of each food. Notice how I only pick simple foods because we don't want any one thing to stand out more than any other thing. I want to keep it as simple as possible since the piece is so busy with so many different characters. I use simple circles for blueberries to give the piece balance and dynamic. You will see me add more of them later on to make it feel even more harmonious. Next, I inked the outlines careful paying attention to what is on the top and what is below. Now I can sketch in the details and the faces, and ink those in as well. Notice how all the faces are unique in some way and notice how the faces below look like they're annoyed by the weight, and the faces on top are just relaxing. Also notice how the coffee looks hyper and tired and the knife has vampire teeth because it's sharp. These little details give the piece a lot of character and story. Now to finish off the piece, I use watercolor to paint it in loosely, like always, and add highlights with a gel pen, like always. Just stay loose and simple while doing this. That's it, our final result is super adorable and fun to look at. There are 10 characters here, not counting the strawberries or blueberries, but it doesn't feel overwhelming because I kept them all as simple as can be. This was the last example. I hope all these examples inspired you and now it's time for you to create your own yummy cuties.
9. Your Turn!: Your assignment is to make at least one cutie food. The more you make, the more fun you'll have, and it's hard to stop when you start. If you want an extra challenge, you can draw your favorite food and the food you'd really don't like that much, maybe broccoli or something. But please share all your cuties because I really love to see what you make, and it'll help inspire all the students in the class. If you get stuck, simply re-watch the first three lessons, and try to infuse your kid with emotion and story for even more fun. Most importantly, don't take this too seriously and don't be too hard on yourself. Just play around with different ideas and keep it simple. That's it, I hope you enjoyed the class. If you want to continue learning, you can check out my numerous other classes and I'll see you guys in the next class. Stay cutie, my friends.
Yasmina Creates, Artist & Creativity Cheerleader
