Welcome to the Culinary Canvas! In today’s lesson, we’re illustrating a delicious tomato basil pasta recipe using pen and watercolor.

This project is a great way to practice mixing vibrant reds, earthy greens, and a cozy shadow color. Plus, you’ll learn how to simplify your drawings by starting directly with pen—no erasers, no perfectionism, just a relaxed, creative process.

✍️ Step 1: Draw with Pen (Skip the Pencil!)

For this lesson, I encourage you to go straight to pen! While it may feel a little scary at first, drawing with pen helps you let go of perfectionism and embrace the charm of loose, expressive lines. If you prefer, you can sketch lightly with a pencil first, but I recommend trying pen-only for this exercise.

If you’d like, you can also print out my sample drawing as a reference—but don’t stress about making your illustration look exactly the same! Variation is part of the fun.

🍅 Step 2: Start with the Tomatoes

We begin by drawing the items in front, moving to the background last.

Start with the main tomato in the center of your page, leaning at about a 10:00 to 4:00 angle (I love using clock directions for angles!).

• Draw the fuzzy top in the middle of your paper.
  
  
• Sketch the oval body of the tomato—remember, San Marzano tomatoes are oval-shaped, not round.
  

Next, draw the second tomato tucked behind the first, slightly overlapping it.

🧄 Step 3: Draw the Garlic

Now, we’ll draw the garlic cloves:

• Start with a flat-topped teardrop for the main garlic bulb.
  
  
• Add a clove on each side, using simple half-teardrop shapes.
  
  
• Top it off with another smaller clove above the center one.
  
  

🌿 Step 4: Add the Basil

Next, it’s time for basil leaves! Begin with the smaller top leaves:

• Draw two small teardrop-shaped leaves at the top.
  
  
• Add slightly larger leaves below, rotating them outward.
  
  
• Finish with the largest drooping leaves at the bottom.
  

Add the basil stem wherever it feels balanced with your composition.

🍝 Step 5: Draw the Penne Pasta

Now for the penne pasta:

• Draw two horizontal lines to make the tube shape.
  
  
• Connect the sides with angled lines—penne pasta is cut at an angle!
  
  
• Add more penne pieces above and behind, overlapping them slightly.
  
  
• Finish by sketching the open ends of the pasta, using small ovals set slightly inside the tube edges.
  

🫒 Step 6: Finish with Olive Oil

The final touch? Olive oil! Draw a freeform “blob” shape—there’s no wrong way to do it.

That’s it for this sketching session! In the next video, we’ll add watercolor to bring your illustration to life.