Illustrated pot on stove GIF: Boiling water loop animation and food illustration
This illustrated pot on stove GIF depicts the first step every culinarian needs to take in order to cook Italian pasta – with plenty of water. I created this boiling water loop animation as part of a series of GIFs depicting the cooking process in the Italian, Mediterranean, and Levantine cuisines.
Pot on stove GIF: Italian copper saucepan on a gas cooktop
I took artistic licence illustrating this Italian pot on stove GIF. Instead of colouring the pot with a hue that is reminiscent of copper, I opted for a light blue watercolour effect. This made the whole pot look like it was made out of boiling water.
Shaking over the stove, the water-filled pot dances in a never-ending loop that is hypnotising to look at. The viewer can almost hear the stove trembling beneath the pot, as it lets out steam while the water comes to a rolling boil.
This GIF is based on a food illustration of an Italian pot, filled with water and rumbling away on a traditional gas cooktop. Gas stove tops are pretty much still in use in many homes across Italy, due to their even heat control.
FYI – “Italian copper saucepan” translates into “pentola di rame italiana” in Italian.
Frame-by-frame cooking GIF in Procreate
For this looping animation, I added an analogue watercolour texture that I had scanned previously. I actually have a library of those ready to use for illustrations that mix up digital and analogue techniques.
The watercolour brand I used to paint these watercolour “blooms” is White Nights, a professional-grade artist paints manufacturer.
I also created the line art (aka line illustration, or contour drawing) digitally. However, the overall illustration looks like a line and wash artwork. And the end result is an animation loop that is coherent with an earlier GIF I made (Illustrated pesto GIF). It’s also consistent with my logo and overall branding.
I started creating frame-by-frame animated GIFs in Procreate a couple of years ago. It’s because I wanted to see my illustrations dance and move.
I then decided to create a series of animation loops for my Illustrated GIFs blog series to depict the many faces of Mediterranean and Levantine cooking.
What I love about this project is that with a few lines, textures and a simple movement routine, one can create a mood that transports the viewer to a specific culinary experience, in this instance, the Italian cuisine.
Hand-drawn illustration of an Italian saucepan, sitting on a traditional gas cooktop. This line and wash illustration is by illustrator and artist Ruba Saqr.
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