According to the brief, the supermarket I drew these illustrations for takes great pride in the quality of their products, so I decided to create two illustrations overflowing with aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables, set up in a composition suggesting farm-grown plants. The customer will always trust a farmer more than a commercial company.
Since my compositions were going to be so busy, I had to choose a single large focal point for each of them. The obvious choice for the Autumn piece was the pumpkin, and for Summer I debated using a lemonade pitcher, but I later decided to use a watermelon, to better mirror the Autumn drawing in proportions. The similarities in the crawling vines of both plants also served well for the mirroring aspect.
When I sketched out my ideas for the compositions, I first tried using a flat surface, like a floor or table, as a base, but realized that the square format is not advantageous for such a setting. I needed some sort of box or shelf to elevate the elements of my composition. What I ended up using was a step-like box behind the focal point where I could place more fruits and vegetables.
Next to my sketches, I made a few notes regarding colors and textures. For the Autumn Illustration, I selected a predominantly warm palette of reds and oranges, and for Summer I wanted fresh greens and reds. I made a list of fruits and vegetables for each season, and used Image Search to create two mood boards of those elements. There also are images with wood textures because I wanted to incorporate them in the boxes.
The images themselves were drawn and painted on thick watercolor paper, then outlined in ink with a dip pen.
