The Happy Little Fruit Collection

In my ongoing search to find my ‘Art Style,’ I spent an afternoon drawing the same object in several ways. I chose a photograph on Unsplash of some juicy looking lemons and experimented with using different brushes and colour palettes to create some new work. 

The work of Sophie Mellissa inspired the first experiment. I love her illustrations and the grainy texture she uses on what appears to be illustrations created using Adobe Illustrator. The texture adds complexity to simplified forms. The colours she uses are bold, and I love how she adds shadow. I used solid monoline brushes to create my work and added depth with shadows and texture by adding a noise layer. I was so pleased with how this experiment turned out, but I’m not quite sure it’s ‘me’.  

The work of several illustrators inspired my second attempt at the lemons drawing. Mimimoo Illustrations creates adorable art using different textured brushes in Photoshop. Her content inspires me, and I love her art. Another illustrator whose art I would describe as cute is Sara Faber. I love how she brings fruit and other inanimate objects to life by giving them human features. 

To create my piece inspired by these artists, I used a 6b pencil brush in Procreate for that textured hand-drawn feel. I initially went with a lighter colour palette, more in line with the style of some of the illustrators I follow, but soon changed my mind and incorporated the brighter colours I use for my brand. The little flourishes are a feature I love in the work of Mimi and Sara, so I added my own little touches to this piece. I wanted to add a little more texture so I carried over the noise layer I created for the previous experiment. 

This piece hit differently. I asked my mum which one she preferred as I was kinda proud of them both and when she said the blue one I was a little disappointed so I realised I clearly have a preference for the more cutesy colourful fruit illustration. I could have and continued to try different styles but I loved the happy little lemons so much that I decided to start a little fruit series. At the time of writing this, I have now created a happy little oranges and happy avocados piece and I hope to create more. 

I’m still not sure if this is the art style I’m going to stick with but I really love it for now. The bright colours, textured pencil, flourishes and other details I will indeed carry across into other work I create. But I will continue to experiment with my art differently, so watch this space.