Realistic Food Illustration

“Easy as Pie” - Copic Alcohol Markers & Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

Copic and other alcohol markers are fun for coloring cards and stamped images.

But the same techniques you use for casual hobby and cartoon projects can be enhanced to render objects with stunning photorealism.

“Easy as Pie” is a mixed media painting using Copic Markers and Prismacolor pencils to create the look of glowing tart cherries and glossy cherry pie filling inside flakey golden pie crust.

Is it real or is it an illustration?

Amy Shulke, professional illustrator and instructor here at VanillaArts.com helps you create the art beyond basic blending.

Resources & Learning Aids

Advanced Alcohol Marker Techniques

The Underpainters is Amy’s coloring group for independent advanced students.

Members receive monthly challenges, photo references, and digital stamps, plus access to an interactive deep-dive lesson livestream plus our private membership forum for questions, feedback, and critique.

Easy as Pie - June 2023

Digital download package available through 06/30/2023. Livestream recording available until July 2024.

COMING SOON: Easy as Pie will be released as an advanced Workshop class in July 2023.

Livestream Info

Easy as Pie - Cherry Pie Illustration

Livestreams are exclusive to members of The Underpainters, our independent advanced coloring group.

Join today for access to monthly downloadables, a live monthly Q&A livestream with demonstrations, plus one year of livestream archive videos.

Cherry Pie Coloring Tips

TIP: Don’t start with the highlights— they’re decoration, not structure

Have you ever wondered why we call them highlights? “High-lights” are supposed to attract our focus with bright light, enhancing the shape of the object below.

If you don’t accurately color the underlying shape with realistic dimension first, then you’re drawing attention to your flat coloring.

TIP: Flaky pie crust is not smooth

Blending is not the only marker technique available, it’s just the only one people know about.

Real food has real texture which is why we only blend when the food itself is smooth.

It’s okay to not-blend!

The scumbling technique creates small crags and crevices which look like crumbly layers of pastry. It’s a much better match for pies, cakes, doughnuts, and other baked flour-based desserts.

Art Supplies & Colors for Realistic Cherry Pie

“Easy as Pie” measures 10 x 6.5 inches.

Amy works from references. This project combined three photo references plus experiments with a freshly baked homemade cherry pie (to see how a lattice crust falls along the cut line and how filling pools on a plate).

This coloring project started with her original line drawing printed onto 12 x 12 smooth Bristol board. The image was printed with gray lines instead of black.

The stemmed cherries, pie filling, and golden crust were all colored with Copic Marker using textural strokes and stipples instead of smooth blends.

The marker-work was enhanced with decorative strokes and highlights of Prismacolor Premier colored pencil. The pencil layers were kept soft and minimal, allowing the beauty of the markers to shine through.

Scroll to the bottom of this page for specific colors and other tools used.

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Read More

Color with Red

Designed for large scale, realistic coloring. Amy’s illustrations are drawn with minimal texture marks or decorations to let your marker art shine.

Take a Class

Amy has classes featuring food texture techniques

Or focus on beginner blending skills in The Blend, our 12 week marker blending workshop

More About Red Markers

We love Violeta-Ink.com

Be sure to tell them Amy sent you!

Supply List for “Easy as Pie”