In this course, I walk you through how I completed a ramen recipe illustration to teach you how to combine the elements of graphic storytelling to turn your favorite recipes into engaging illustrations. You'll also learn how to combine hand-drawn line work with digital coloring to bring your illustration to life.

Here is a simple course guide:

1. Pick Your Recipe

Choose a recipe that excites you—your favorite dish, a family classic, or something with a personal story.

2. Spotlight Key Moments & Ingredients

Pick three key moments from the cooking process and sketch them out quickly.
Jot down the ingredients and their quantities for reference.

3. Sketch with the Comic Panel Layout

Use the provided Comic Panel Layout as a guide. (Download it from Project Resources.)

4. Arrange Ingredients & Composition

Place all ingredients and the finished dish at the center of your illustration.
Optional: If you’re illustrating a sauce recipe, try drawing the ingredients inside circles with the amounts listed below—this keeps things clear while blending naturally into your layout.

5. Refine Your Draft

Clean up your sketch using an iPad Pro or the LED Copy Board.
Use the Grid Type Sheet to organize your composition.

6. Ink Your Drawing

Transfer your refined sketch onto the Led copy board for inking.
Use a Technical Pen to add shading and overlay lines for depth.
Check out the hatching technique in my resource (Downloadable from Project Resources.)

7. Scan & Clean Up the Line Art

Scan your inked drawing into your computer.
Use a Wacom Tablet for precise touch-ups.

8. Add Color & Blend

Color your illustration using your computer or iPad Pro.
Stick to your color palette, adjusting transparency to mix colors.
Follow the three-primary-color blending rules to add color.

9. Final Touches: Brushes & Effects

Experiment with different brushes for unique textures.
I recommend the Adobe brushes from Kyle T. Webster and playing around with Coopier and Spatter brushes for a dynamic effect.

Ming Yue

Illustrator/Comic artist

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