‘I’m more of a savoury kind of guy,” says Tom Hovey, the illustrator who has now made around 3,500 drawings for The Great British Bake Off. “I would have been very happy illustrating a show about, say, barbecuing – but that is not the hand life dealt me. I am quite a foodie, though, and really like to cook.” Even if he doesn’t have a sweet tooth, Hovey has had his favourite contestants over the years. “I really liked Helena,” he says, referring to the Spanish goth from last year’s series. “She was a vampire-bats-at-home kind of woman. Her bakes reflected that and it was a pleasure to illustrate them. I also loved Kim-Joy [2018’s Belgian-British finalist]. I like people who embody their worlds through their bakes. For them, it’s not about producing stuff – it’s about expressing yourself. I love that.” Like Helena and Kim-Joy, the 37-year-old Welshman has developed his own unique style. “Each illustration is on screen for six seconds so I really have to make an impact. I learned on the job how to do that – developing thicker outlines, using hatching and ultimately using PhotoShop to colour the images.” Each week during filming, Hovey receives a portfolio of photographs of the contestants’ bakes from all angles. Among his favourites have been Flora’s Tea Box and Paul’s King of the Jungle. He works remotely from his studio in Newport and has only been in the Bake Off tent once. “I also get photos from the bakers of their practice runs at home, which are often better than the ones they do on the show, because they’re not working against the clock.” Hovey had a new challenge in this year’s Bake Off, which reaches its final tomorrow night. In an early episode, each contestant had to make a cake bust of their hero for the showstopper. Hermine chose Kenyan-Mexican actor Lupita Nyong’o, Linda created an orange and ginger Bob Marley, while Mark made Origin-ger of the Species, honouring Charles Darwin. “The illustrations needed to look like the celebrities,” says Hovey. “So I didn’t use food photographs for once.” Instead, he simply based his illustrations on images found on Google. Hovey wanted to be an artist from childhood. An uncle who had a pottery studio pointed the way. “He made it as a self-sufficient artist, and that was an important example to me.” He left school at 16, glad to get out of it. “But then I realised I’d need training so I wound up doing a course in sequential illustration at Swindon and then a degree at Bournemouth. That’s where I found my tribe.” As a student, he did a lot of political drawings, inspired by such acerbic masters as Gerald Scarfe and fellow Welshman Ralph Steadman. So how did he wind up illustrating Nadiya’s Fizzy Pop Cheesecakes or Stacey’s Tropical Trifle Terrine? “Ten years ago, I was just out of uni, sofa-surfing in London. I was creating murals in Soho with a street art collective. We’d be making them in Saatchi’s foyer and stores opposite Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green Shop in Carnaby Street. Obviously it wasn’t making money, so I did loads of jobs – McDonald’s, pubs, record shops, all that.” Then one day, a mate who worked in TV told him about a job in an editing suite. “Next thing I knew, I was sitting in this room with the director and editor of Bake Off which had just begun. They said that it lacked a visual element, so I suggested that as an illustrator I could draw the designs.” His first – of a signature cake - was rejected. “It was overworked and too detailed. And it needed a thicker line to work on telly. It was only by series four that I felt I’d really found my style.” As his style evolved, so did the bakes. “They became more accomplished in design terms, which was more fun for me to illustrate.” He singles out John’s gingerbread Roman Colosseum from series three, a feat of engineering as much as baking. By 2016, the workload proved overwhelming: he was producing illustrations for Bake Off and its spin-offs including Celebrity Bake Off, Junior Bake Off, Stand Up to Cancer, a US version and Christmas specials, as well as a colouring book. So he hired some graduates from the University of the West of England in Bristol. Does this mean he’s like Damien Hirst getting his assistants to paint the dots while he kicks back? “Not really! I live on an estate in Newport, not in some huge pile in England. I’m still really engaged in the creative process, as well as mentoring.” What do you teach upcoming artists? “Draw all the time, anything and everyday, to find your style. And don’t waste your time – there are lots of artists out there, so you’ve got to hustle and seize your opportunities.” Hovey never expected to be a food illustrator. “I dreamed of doing what [Guardian cartoonist] Steve Bell does,” he says. “But I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to work to a daily deadline and make work that has a subtext so it is visually interesting.” Hovey is disarmingly self-deprecating, envious of contemporaries who’ve made it illustrating albums for the likes of Metallica. He is planning projects unrelated to Bake Off that he doesn’t want to detail yet – because he knows that, like Iain’s infamous baked alaska from 2014, the show will one day get binned. “Don’t get me wrong. I love this and I never look back with regret. I’ve become obsessed with illustrating food. I look at Cézanne with renewed awe and Dalí too.” Two years ago, Hovey’s work was shown in an exhibition of cookery illustration at Leeds University. It made him realise he was part of a long tradition that predates food photography. “I’m passionate about food illustration and can keep developing it afresh. But eating cakes is not for me, which is just as well for my waistline. In restaurants, I’m the guy ordering two starters and skipping dessert. I don’t want to eat cakes. I just want to draw them.” • The Great British Bake off is on Channel 4 tomorrow. • This article was amended on 22 November 2020 because Kim-Joy reached the 2018 final but did not win as an earlier version said, and Iain’s “infamous Arctic Roll from series one” was in fact a baked alaska from series five.