Behind The Scenes: Bakery Illustration (Patreon)

It was now clear, that I want to continue the series of these shops inspired by my other flat shaded rooms, but little bit more stylized and smooth. For a while, I really couldn't thought of anything. 

For some reason, the list of interesting shops dried up after coffee shop and pizzeria. So either there are no more interesting ideas, or my world became so narrow, that pizza and coffee takes up 90% of my mental space. So this time, I started searching for a reference without any particular idea in mind.

You would think, that it's not a very good starting point, but sometimes this kind of aimless exploration is all you need to magic to happen :)

I was looking at a bunch of cool looking interiors and came across the image you can see in the middle, with a barrel in it. Now that's something, it caught my attention. It was a cafe and I almost skipped it, but then I noticed the bakery part and it hit me. Bakery it is!

I started to search for a small bakery images and found a lot of interesting details that I can fit in. Like a black and white tiled floor, the barrel (I had to have that barrel), baguette baskets, chair design. 

Sometimes it can be tempting to use these ideas exactly as you see them, but it's necessary to take a step back and try to come up with a little bit different way of how to include them. That's why it's useful to dissect the images into those little items and assemble the whole scene from scratch during the sketch phase.

Sketching is always the part when I cross combine these ideas and figure out the layout. I included the exterior image on the reference board to be reminded, that I liked columns there and the glass store front. So instead of doing a wall, or only a large window, I tried to fit in glass door and window with those columns.

I really liked the result, so I completed the layout very similar to the cafe before, just with a different details. I also sketched some products, just to see, how much I will have to model to get a sense of variation. It looked like I would need at least 5 - 6 different products to be able to deliver the mood.

In a small scene like this, there is a lot you can get away with so I've included some small tricks I use to quickly create some shape, like bread, or a pie ;)

So that was the bakery scene for this week. Thanks for reading and I hope it will help you with your next work.