JOANA MIRANDA STUDIO

A few days ago as the oven was preheating, I started my Bon Appetit Pizza Art illustration. The menu for the evening was…homemade pizza! So, not surprisingly, this drawing emerged.

Bon Appetit Pizza Art

These days when I make homemade pizza, I cheat and use a pre-made gluten-free crust. I’m happy to report that my illustration is also gluten-free. However, there was NO cheating – just plain old-fashioned freehand drawing with my Noodler’s Ahab Flex fountain pen.

Here’s the illustration after I added watercolor:

For a cohesive look…

I usually stick with a fairly limited color palette. In this case, though, I wanted to explore using a few different reds: tomato red for the pizza sauce, wine red for the wine, and a shade somewhat in between for the checkered table cloth. I used the same green for the parsley and the candlestick holder, though I added in touches of blue to the candlestick holder as well. I then used the same blue for the pants, as well as diluting the blue to give color accents on the “crystal” goblet and “white” menu.

I draw people…

Because they amuse me. I think they also give my illustrations life and movement. Men are funnier and easier to cartoon because, well, men often look more cartoony to me than women! I also have an affinity for drawing Frenchmen or European men. Maybe it’s because I prefer drawing berets as opposed to baseball caps. Or, maybe it’s because my dad wore a beret all of his life.

The print version of my Bon Appetit Pizza Art…

Is now available in my shop at Etsy! This is what it would look like framed with a simple black frame:

What’s next? Well, after a pizza dinner, probably dessert! To be honest, I haven’t yet decided what I’ll work on tomorrow. But in the meantime, you might enjoy feasting your eyes on this collection of dessert photos from my trip to Paris a few years ago.