We are in the era of the exotification of sardines. On instagram, if you've doom scrolled your way around a lot and also like food recipes, you've probably come across instagram pages that show you how to make new recipes with sardines. It's been praised as such a power food to eat, a meal packed with so many nutrients and cheap also. There's even the fear now that with so many people talking about it, the price of what was once seen as a struggle meal would now be beyond the reach of ordinary households. So far though, they are pretty affordable where I stay.
I like to draw fish, so I decided to draw some sardines this afternoon after eating some Ukrainian buckwheat and chicken. I'm struggling with some heartburn, so I try to eat in moderation even though the heartburn still bypasses that honest desire. But there is not much I can do now except bear the discomfort for a few more weeks.
Here is what the final illustration looks like:
I like to have variations of an artwork and pastel colours. This is why I ended up having two versions. I can't decide which one I like best.
These are some progress shots:
From this stage onwards, I rotated the fish and changed their orientation from the landscape mode to portrait mode. One tin of sardines felt a bit static and boring to my eyes, so I decided to create a duplicate and played around with the background colours for a while.
I'm happy with the final result. It looks like ice-cream in a way but I promise that's just yummy fish!