8 Great Food Illustrators to Follow
From packaging to cookbooks, these illustrators are doing it beautifully
Food illustration is a niche I find endlessly inspiring. There are artists who bring complex concepts to life for magazine stories; those who make packaging that stops you in the grocery aisle; and still others who distill complicated recipe steps into a single spread in your favorite cookbook. Among so many other things! Here are eight illustrators whose work I keep coming back to, each with a distinct style worth exploring.
Aly Miller
Artist Aly Miller specializes in map illustrations, food illustrations for publications and brands, and cookbook illustrations — don’t miss the beautiful work she did for chef Sohla El-Waylly’s first cookbook, Start Here. She also has a shop filled with gorgeous prints, tea towels, mugs and more, featuring her drawings of seasonal produce and other farmers’ market fare.
Elena Resko
I previously worked with Berlin-based illustrator Elena Resko from the other side, as an editor/art director, and immediately fell in love with her bright, energetic illustration style. Her work features a lot of smooth gradients, bold color palettes, and textural elements, with compositions that have a nice flow and rhythm on the page. And I can vouch that she is lovely to work with!
Jaya Nicely
Jaya Nicely is a Los Angeles-based art director, illustrator and designer. She does not do exclusively food illustration, but her work with food is a standout. Her style has a rich, painterly quality that I love. She’s worked with editorial clients like Vulture, The Ringer, and Variety, and was co-creator of Compound Butter, a food-inspired publication that ran for ten years.
Marianna Fierro
Marianna Fierro is another LA-based designer and illustrator, specializing in work for food, beverage, and lifestyle brands. She blends graphic design with an illustration style that features lots of delicate linework paired with bold, flat color.
Drew Bardana
A freelance illustrator from Portland, Oregon, Drew Bardana specializes in food and lifestyle illustration for editorial, children’s books, packaging, branding, animation, and advertising. His work is full of expressive characters, bold shapes, and textural details.
Katia Bulbenko
Katia Bulbenko is a New York-based illustrator and surface pattern designer who creates art for greeting cards, magazines and puzzles, and surface patterns for fabrics and home goods. Like some of the others on this list, she is not exclusively a food illustrator, but food is a favorite subject and one she does well. Her clients include Werkshoppe Puzzles, Design House Greetings, Amber Lotus Publishing, and Edible Jersey.
Alex Hoskins
Illustrator Alex Hoskins’s work has a watercolor-esque, cut paper quality that she often pairs with playful hand lettering. British-born and currently based in Zimbabwe, she is represented by the Lemonade Illustration Agency and has worked with clients like Pepsi, Once Upon a Farm and Good Housekeeping.
Nadia di Fiore
Montreal-based illustrator Nadia di Fiore creates editorial illustrations, greeting cards, and illustrated books that often feature themes of food along with charming animal characters. Her work has a pen-and-ink look that I love, with lots of intricate linework and a retro color palette that reminds me of classic children’s books.
And last but not least… Laura Sant
Food illustration is, of course, what I do best.
If you have a project in the works, I'd love to hear about it!