Jamie's Sketchbook

Jamie

Sketching obsessed.

Watercolor and ink food sketch of a meal on a teal blue plate, from the Monday 2 March 2026 page of Food Sketchbook No. 5. A round bean burger patty is rendered in yellow, orange and dark ink linework, with a small white bowl of ketchup above it and two green dill pickles to the right. A white bun sits at the bottom right. Handwritten text at the top reads "bean burger, pickle, mashed potato" and nutrition and cost data is noted at the bottom.

End of a Series (and a lot of Red Lentil Pasta)

The End of a Series (and a Lot of Red Lentil Pasta)

It’s March, and I’m sketching food again. If you’ve been following along, you might notice that February and March seem to have a strange gravitational pull for sketching food! My first food sketchbook started 1 February 2020, my second picked up again 1 February 2021, and here I am in 2026, wrapping up my fifth. I genuinely did not plan that.

This post covers March 1–8, the final eight days in this little sketchbook — Volume 24 overall, Food Sketchbook No. 5. It’s a 3.5×5.5 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon, softcover, 150gsm smooth white paper. I’ve used a few different Stillman & Birn papers across the five food sketchbooks, and this one has been a pleasant surprise — it handles ink beautifully, and the watercolor behaves better than you’d expect from a smooth paper. It allows for harder, crisper marks, which suits food sketching well.

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Sunday 1 March 2026. Plates of food are arranged along a bold dark horizontal band across both pages, including a green plate of yellow pasta with orange and green vegetables, a small dark bowl, a purple shape, and a large oval plate with colorful vegetables. Handwritten notes on the left list foods, prices, and nutrition data.
Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Monday 2 March 2026. Four individual food portraits are arranged in a grid of framed panels across the top of both pages, showing dark chocolate, a green plate of red lentil pasta with roasted tomatoes, a plate of rice cakes with cheese and jam, and a blue plate with a bean burger and pickles. A framed panel at the bottom left shows the daily total cost and nutrition data.

These eight pages are a bit of a mixed bag stylistically, and I’ll be honest about why: I got behind and had to catch up. Six of the eight are loose, direct watercolor without nutritional data, because that’s simply much faster to do. The two more structured pages — the panoramic spread on Sunday March 1st, and the grid of four individual food portraits on Monday the 2nd — are closer to what I’d do if I had unlimited time. The Monday page even has the full daily cost and nutrition totals at the bottom, which is the whole point of the exercise, really.

One ounce of dark chocolate chips is a must to start the day, of course. I do have a shocking amount of the red lentil sedanini every week, month, year. What can I say, it’s easier on the glucose hits, and carries a nut cheese sauce well. Food allergies, so I’m gluten free and vegan as much as possible. And let’s face it, scanning through sketches is far easier when finding a culprit!

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Tuesday 3 March 2026, with a corrected date visible. A large bordered rectangle frames both pages. On the left, a small dark bowl of chocolate and a blue circle sit beside a large yellow pasta bowl on a green plate. On the right, small sketches of coconut date bars sit beside two more green plates — one with red lentil spaghetti marinara and one with trail mix. Food labels are handwritten throughout.
Loose watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Wednesday 4 March 2026. On the left page, dark chocolate shapes and a teal oval sit beside a large yellow pasta bowl rendered in fluid, gestural brushwork. On the right, a loosely painted My Bacon sits centrally, with scattered sketches of cherry tomatoes on the vine, green cucumbers, a bean burger with ketchup, a bowl of strawberries, and more strawberries rendered in bright red. Handwritten food labels throughout.
Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Thursday 5 March 2026, with a bright turquoise border wash across both pages. On the left, a dark chocolate piece and a blue oval sit beside a yellow pasta bowl on a turquoise plate. On the right, two golden olive oil lemon cakes sit beside a grey bowl with a colorful glow bowl of vegetables and a plate of bright orange sweet potato fries. Food names are handwritten on both pages.

The highlight of the week was Thursday, when I ate out at Flower Child with a friend who was heading off on vacation. The olive oil lemon cake on that page was hers — I did not eat two desserts, though I won’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind. The glow bowl and sweet potato fries were very good.

Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Friday 6 March 2026, with a soft purple border wash. On the left page, dark chocolate pieces and blue-purple ovals sit beside a bold yellow and orange pasta bowl. On the right, a striking cluster of deep red cherry tomatoes on the vine dominates the center, with a plate of loosely painted orange red lentil spaghetti marinara beside it. Food names are handwritten below each item.
Watercolor and ink food sketch on a double page spread, Saturday 7 March 2026, with a blue border. A row of food items stretches across both pages: dark chocolate and a navy oval on the far left, followed by a green bowl of yellow pasta, a red-rimmed bowl of trail mix, a small dark bowl of chocolate, a sketch of tomatoes on the vine with strips of vegan bacon, and a red-rimmed plate with a bean burger and dill pickles. Food labels are handwritten above each item, with the date written at the bottom left.

Saturday brought a treat of a different kind: I’ve recently discovered My Bacon, a vegan bacon made from mycelium (soy-free, wheat-free, and genuinely delicious), and it shows up twice this week. Highly recommend if you’re navigating similar dietary constraints.

Watercolor food sketch on a double page spread, Sunday 8 March 2026, with a soft grey-purple border wash. On the left, dark chocolate pieces and a blue oval sit beside a large yellow-green pasta bowl. In the center, a small red-rimmed bowl holds a colorful trail mix. On the right, a pale grey bowl of red lentil spaghetti in a cheesy lemon sauce sits beside bright orange wedges of fresh orange. Food names are handwritten throughout.

And then Sunday the 8th, and that’s it. The book is full.

This is the fifth time I’ve filled one of these little landscape books with food, and I have no plans to stop — I’ll just be doing it within my regular daily sketchbook from here on, rather than in a dedicated volume. There will be one more post from this sketchbook: the wireframe page design diagrams I used to plan these layouts, which feels like a fitting way to close it out properly.

If you want to browse the whole food sketching journey, here are the starting points:

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