This post is well overdue, I did intend to do an individual post for each new published illustration, that, sadly never happened. This is my first week without an illustration commission for 2014, which helpfully has coincided with a new promotional mail out (I’ll be blogging about that soon).
So, back to the work, below you can see 4 jobs from 3 different clients that came out in the last week of Feb and first weeks of March. All four jobs were completely different which was very demanding on the old brain box, but very rewarding, too.
Here’s a quick run down on the jobs in order of how I rate my finished illustration, starting from number 1 ...
1. Panorama - The American Dream.
This job was actually for two illustrations, the second of which you can see here. The general idea was how the 'American Dream' has changed to just having a family, which is reflected in American TV, film and other forms of fiction. The reason the illustration stands out for me is it’s unusual angle, at first I really struggled to show the family looking at themselves in the TV without being able to show both sets of faces. This layout achieved that aim, it did however make it very difficult for me to draw. Normally I use visual aides (my girlfriend or myself as the model!) so instead I had to just wing it … which in the end I think paid off and has lead me to believe I should put more faith in my creative drawing abilities. Another stand out factor is the golden glow from the TV on the blue characters. I have further developed this in later illustrations (which you will see as you scroll down!) it’s definitely something that adds depth and intrigue to the work which I’ll continue to develop.
2. Dries Van Noten - The Financial Times.
This illustration is part of the 'FT Lunch’ series that I am incredibly honoured to be a part of. On this occasion I was commissioned to do a portrait of Dries Van Noten, a Belgium fashion designer who’s making big waves on the scene at the moment. Doing these portraits gives me the opportunity to add more detail and incorporate my pencil work that often I am unable to include, either because I don’t have time due to the short deadlines, or the image size is to small so the detail would be lost. This image like the first also has a new technique introduced to it which I believe, although a gamble, has worked. Using the mono-print ink roller I set about attacking some white paper, instead of its usual target, the mono-print board. The end result was the raw, organic marks that make up Dries’s blue pinstriped jacket. It was hard to see how they would work at first in their pure state, but once I had worked some Photoshop magic on them they were ready for the Ball!
3. Rickshaw Vs. Qingqi’s - The Financial Times.
This Illustration was completed for my regular slot I do for the FT, where each week a different guest writer talks about what they have been up to, hence its name 'The Diary’. The time constraints I have for this section of the paper can be anything from 2 days to just a few hours. Mix that with the different writing style of each contributor and you can have a really varied outcome. This particular Diary I loved, its very interesting subject matter setting it apart from some of the others. This is the second illustration that I got chance to incorporate and develop further the idea of contrasting the colour on the subjects to show ‘the glow’ I mentioned before. Without it I really don’t think the feeling of the warm sun setting would have been anywhere near as strong, I can see that this technique could be something that will shape my future illustrations completely.
4. Talkin’ bout our generation - Druglink.
What makes this illustration no.4 on the list is its very bright contrasting colours that I wouldn't normally use but were required to make it work within the brief. If it had been my normal pallet I think it would have been closer to the top, purely because of the excellent characters that I got to draw. Although the illustrations are highlighting a rather dark topic I have to say I did enjoy drawing normal pensioners with the addition of elicit drugs.
Let me know your thoughts, I would be very interested to know if you would have put the illustrations in a different order. Thank you and goodnight.