Welcome to my food and travel illustration blog
Looking for food and travel illustration with a cultural twist? Or perhaps your next project requires some hand illustrated stories celebrating Italy, the Mediterranean, the Levant or North Africa? Well, you’ve come to the right place!
A Levantine food and travel illustration feast
I would like to welcome you to my food and travel illustration blog and invite you on a journey of discovery around my sunny neighbourhood, the Levant, and its super region, the beautiful Mediterranean sea basin.
Having travelled to more than 20 countries across 4 continents, I’ve naturally gravitated towards editorial and commercial food and travel illustration. This, in large part, is owing to my endless infatuation with our planet’s cultural variety. My area of focus, though, is the culinary and folk traditions of the Levant and the Mediterranean.
This said, I also have a deep interest in the craftsmanship and visual arts of the Mughal empire in the Indian subcontinent, a dynasty that exhibited religious diversity and respect for cultural pluralism for over three centuries.
Creating illustrated recipes depicting authentic foods from my multicultural heritage, and my husband’s country, Italy, is a true passion of mine.
Illustrated maps that celebrate the Mediterranean region’s heritage, with drawings depicting its traditional costumes and heritage jewellery, and illustrations commemorating its iconic architectural landmarks are all reasons why I started this blog.
Exploring the Mediterranean cultural heritage through illustration
Food and travel illustration is the perfect excuse to indulge in an exploratory adventure around my region’s multicultural heritage.
The Levant and the Mediterranean are home to a vast array of scrumptious authentic dishes. This sunny region has breathtaking handcrafts, intricate handmade jewellery, unique architectural styles, exquisite patterns and motifs, and all sorts of colourful details. All of these combined comprise the folk, tribal and native traditions of this fascinating region.
In essence, illustration is a means to explore the cultural identity of this neck of the woods. It’s my way of appreciating the countless ways multiculturalism enriches our lives.
In the end, the many manifestations of cultural expression are why people travel to see new places and experience home-grown, delicious foods. Without cultural diversity life can be bland and boring.
My illustration journey so far
I have been illustrating professionally since 2017, and have worked with book publishers, restaurants, and government agencies from Italy, UK, the Levant and Southeast Asia.
Over the years, I have completed client illustration commissions for different uses, surfaces and industries. These include food illustrations, illustrated maps, illustrated recipes, illustrated menus, and illustrated archaeological and architectural landmarks.
My projects also include multi-use illustrations for a couple of London-based Italian and Turkish restaurants. I’ve also licensed a food illustration for a cookbook cover about Middle Eastern food to Italian publisher, Sellerio Editore.
Moreover, my illustration clients include the Italian Trade Agency (ITA). For the duration of 2 years, I created illustrations, wrote content and designed layouts for their newsletters and trade conferences.
Add to this an animated GIF for the British Department for International Development (DFID UK) – which has now been replaced by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) – on occasion of the International Day to End Violence against Women & Girls.
In short, my Illustration Portfolio is where I share client work and completed illustration commissions, whereas the Illustration Blog is where I post self-commissioned personal work in food and travel illustration.
My first-ever home when I first came into this world looked a bit like this architectural illustration. This is a typical 1930’s stone house, found in some older neighbourhoods in the Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean. These nostalgic homes are typically one or two storeys high, have gardens in the front and back, and come with wide verandas. The ceilings are unusually high, higher than modern constructions. There is also a damp, cool and echoey staircase that leads to the second floor. These homes have a romantic energy, as if singing you a lullaby the minute you step into their warm abode. Within minutes you feel like you’re about to fall asleep. The pinkish stones come from the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean and adorn the facade of the building. With their roomy rooms and terrazzo floors, I love everything about them.
A lot to learn from a corporate career in media and PR
Before 2017, I worked in media, PR and music.
Although I thought my journalism years were behind me, I did re-enter the media world as an opinion writer from 2021 to 2023. Meanwhile, I continued to freelance as an illustrator, all the while making my fine art paintings.
I ended up writing 68 op-eds for a weekly column that appeared on Wednesdays. My focus was on topics like climate change, privacy laws and the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI). My interests also covered child rights, women empowerment, cultural diversity, and social justice and cohesion.
As a journalist, I had trained with various editors from the Financial Times, the New York Times, and Reuters, before becoming the managing editor of a number of English-speaking publications in the Levant.
In PR and advertising, my experience includes media relations, written copy and PR strategies for various clients. These include brands like The Body Shop, TotalEnergies, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Nescafé, and Nestlé. I’ve also worked on projects for Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Klim, Mercedes Benz, and The World Economic Forum (WEF).
Before becoming a PR director of a local public relations company, I did media relations, spokesmanship and press release writing for Oxfam GB, a leading UK charity fighting global poverty.
For music, I had toured several countries, including the UK, Morocco, Germany and Uzbekistan. This was done individually and within larger musical ensembles, including one organised by the British Council.
Form and content: Traditional art supplies to honour an analogue world
In an age where everything is increasingly over-digitised, I prefer traditional and analogue materials that show the hand of the artist. This, I believe, best reflects the cultural topics I love to explore. After all, most of humanity’s cultural heritage is non-digital, from architectural monuments to actual food!
Early on, while dabbling with different mediums and materials, I quickly realized that my strongest suit was in hand-drawn line illustration using pen and ink, or what some refer to as line art.
In addition to ink pens and dip pens and nibs, I also work with watercolour, gouache, and alcoholic markers. Depending on the project, there is minimal digital input, such as cleaning up the artwork with Affinity Photo before sending it off to the client or posting it online.
For large-scale projects, I may combine digital ink brushes with scanned watercolour textures. Also, I may create collages digitally by arranging hand-drawn analogue illustrations in palatable compositions.
This said, I do create mostly digital illustrations when I’m in a time crunch. But I always make sure to incorporate some analogue elements to honour my original preferences.
Food and travel paintings: Freedom of artistic expression
While I do enjoy fulfilling a brief for an illustration project for brands and clients, I also love creating art for art’s sake with paintings that celebrate the many faces of my culture.
My fine art paintings are often inspired by my illustration work, and vice versa. I find it very exciting to be able to create art in different mediums, while still being able to sustain a cohesive look and personality.
With regards to mediums, I love to work with oil and acrylic paints on canvas, and lately I have been creating gouache and watercolour paintings on acid-free paper.
For more about my artistic influences, please check out my About page. Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to seeing you again in my next illustrated post!
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