How to Draw Cute Food by Angela Nguyen
My rating: 5/5 cats
WELCOME TO AUGUST PROJECT!!
i’ve already drawn through her books about cute stuff and cute animals, so now it is time for cute food! getting a late start because of…everything, but it will be worth it for all of us because SPOILER ALERT this might be her best and cutest book yet. i hope i can live up to her lessons.
CUTE FOOD WILL BE HERE SOON. WATCH THIS SPACE.
okay, here is a partial update! i have been drawing these dutifully each day, but posting has been a little tricky, so i’ve gotten behind in my project. this is DOUBLY disappointing since i didn’t do a july project at all, but 2020 is made of disappointments, so here we are. i am posting a couple today, and by tomorrow i plan to be all caught up and back on a one-a-day path. i had been drawing but not coloring them, but they lacked zazz, so i went back and started coloring them, and now they look better, except for that my markers get all streaky sometimes so maybe i should have just let them be but ENOUGH EXPLAINING! ONTO THE CUTE FOOD!
i didn’t think this book was going to be any great shakes, because how cute can food be, really? what i hadn’t anticipated was that these would not be drawings of food-food, but food as ANIMALS! to save space and not give away nguyen’s farm, i will post everything i drew from each of her segments, but only ONE of her own drawings, which will be whichever one i drew the worst.
HOT DOGS
apologies for shitty drawing, shitty coloring, shitty lighting, shitty photography, and shitty photo editing, i.e. getting used to new and improved photobucket.
here is her version of the one i did wurst (heh):
this is why she teaches people how to draw and i marinate in self-loathing.
TORTILLA CHIPS
i am drawing these on computer paper because i am not a good enough artist to justify purchasing fancy paper, so when i erase, i often wrinkle the paper and make a bad thing worse. angela nguyen, however, deserves the finest paper in the land.
STEAMED BUNS
i think i did ok with this one, but hers, well:
leaps and bounds…
CHOWDER
i am absolutely hopeless when it comes to “shapes,” and “perspective,” and “depth.” that bowl is atrocious, whereas her sloth “relaxing in a chowder spa” is adorable.
maybe i will go back and fix the photos of my crummy drawings when i have a bit more time, but i don’t want to get any further behind. i will color furiously this evening and post three more foods tomorrow and then i will be all caught up.
PASTA
i like these little animastas, especially the raviolions. (she calls them ‘ravioli lions,’ which is prosaic) when choosing the most uggo of mine to contrast with her own more skilled version, i realized that HERS was an uggo, too!
so i guess…i drawed it right?
CANDY
haha, here’s a fun lesson: don’t put your drawing in a puddle of liquid while photographing it. i managed to ruin this one, and all the ones i drew before this because water is relentless.
i don’t know how you fuck up a drawing of a lollipop, but somehow i did!
ICE CREAM
i’m posting TWO pictures of mine because my chocolate-cone’s face got lost
and i’m tooting my own horn on this one. i don’t think ANY of mine are uggo, so here are all of hers, and you can tell me i’m wrong.
AND NOW I AM CAUGHT UP! august 7th = 7 food drawings, and hopefully the rest of the month will be a smoother ride. LGM.
PIES
i had to use two different pictures because i ran out of room.
this is the one i did worst.
hers ARE both round and cute.
but i am also posting her fullpie, because i enjoy the sentence There are squished little animals in between the pastry lattice of this pie so much. i hope the lady who recently scolded me on here for my “kitten on fire” turn of phrase never sees this.
SUSHI
this is to mark the first night of SHARK WEEK, which i celebrate in the traditional way
this is the one i drawed worst, but even i don’t think it came out too bad. a shark week miracle!!
FRUIT DESSERTS
oh no those cats are trapped in gelatin!!
and here we are again, bowl, my biggest nemesis
EGGS
as always; shapes, dimensions, proportions are my achilles pencil…
but i don’t care, cuz my eggs are cute enough for meeeeeee
PASTRIES
oops, i got WAP all over again. that’s wet-ass paper, guys, jeez.
but speaking of things with curves, mine are all wrong.
CURRY
her family of bunnies beats my family of bunnies, but it’s a pretty cute beat-down so no shame
that is all for tonight. greg might have something to add about curry.
BREAKFAST FOODS
if berries looked like this, i’d never be able to eat them.
hers is better:
it’s all in the tilt. things are cuter when they’re askew.
PLATTERS
2 pictures because of size. silly me, i didn’t look at the title of this segment before drawing it, so i drew my fruit responsibly socially distancing.
but i did learn my lesson about how “tilt” = “cuter”
hers is better because she drew all the fruits being friends, but let’s see how they’re all feeling 2 weeks from now. time to self-quarantine, ya grapes!
STUFFED VEGETABLES
LOOK AT THESE COZY CRITTERS!!
i am so smitten with her cuties, i can’t even stand it.
HAMBURGERS
when you color in low light, you end up with blue lettuce!
no contest on which was my worst. it was supposed to look like this:
FRENCH FRIES
i really botched my curly fry. follow the steps and avenge me!!
BREAD
i would eat any of these, even the ones i drew poorly.
hers looks especially buttery.
SANDWICHES
mine aren’t great this time out, and that’s okay. true story: greg came all the way downstate from quarantine today to celebrate my birthday and HE said i was being too hard on myself in my artistic self-assessments. and i said “heh. hard on.”
THE END.
TACOS AND BURRITOS
OH NO THEY ARE TOO CUTE TO EAT!!
i think i did pretty good work here today. i’m not mad at any of my guys. still, respect to the master:
SOUPS
obviously, this is the best lesson in the book. i would not be able to eat this soup, but i’d cuddle the hell out of it.
oops, i forgot to finish coloring mine. blame it on birthday eve cocktails.
NOODLES
a birthday miracle!! i think i did a pretty good job today! even with this teddy bowl! whose is whose, even??
this one’s hers, obviously
still, i feel no shame about these! which might be related to actual birthday-day cocktails. i’m old, wheeeeeee
FLAN
pretty good, right? but hers are WAIT FOR IT flantastic!
can’t stop this comedy, folks! no matter how you try.
CREPES
OH NO I DON’T KNOW WHAT BANANAS LOOK LIKE!
oh. like that.
HOTPOTS
COMPARE! CONTRAST! COMPARE! CONTRAST!
COMPARE! CONTRAST! COMPARE! CONTRAST!
DONUTS
i don’t know why i decided to draw these; they’re kind of boring and same-y.
mine look more like inner tubes, and i had so much coffee today that my hands are shaky, making my linework wobbly (yeah, karen, THAT’S why…) fine, WOBBLIER THAN USUAL. anyway, these are hers:
they also look like inner tubes. ppbblltt.
PIZZA
i will take a better photo another day, when time permits. but look:
she managed to make olives cute! and THIS GUY!
LOVE!
CHIPS AND SNACKS
mine are all goofy in their own way, but they’re still cuties. hers are cutie-er, but i ain’t sore about it.
SALADS
one day left and i’m almost out of allotted reviewspace! will i make it? i also have a (noncovid, hopefully) fever today. so, ‘will i make it?’ x2.
see you tomorrow…i hope!
MACARONS
gr is cutting me off, but i will find a way!
read my book reviews on goodreads
