Illustration
I’d like to think most designers start off as illustrators, but some started with a mouse. I started with crayons and moved on to colored pencils, pastels, charcoals, brushes, and finally… a Wacom tablet. I like to begin my illustrations using just pencil and paper. It’s more natural, less constricting, and all me. Then I’ll bring it into the computer to enhance the image or refine it.
Illustrations can be used anywhere for any purpose. A few ways I can think of are listed here:
- T-shirt designs
- Children’s books
- Storyboards
- Comic strips or books
- Political cartoons
- Clip art collections
- Product illustrations
- Logo or icon designs
- Framed artwork
A local Massachusetts woman had contacted me about this specific illustration request that she wanted for a t-shirt design. I presented her with several quick concept sketches. We went back and forth, making several modifications until we had settled on the final look. Then I proceeded to finish the illustration, add the coloring, and provided the final artwork in multiple file formats.
This was a surprise gift for my brother. I took photos of his dogs and cat in his yard in Providence, Rhode Island. I stitched them together in Photoshop and converted them into a vector file in Illustrator to give it a more modern illustration feel. I took out the background buildings because I wanted the focus to be on the dogs and the yard. I also had to bring back some of the detail that was lost during the conversion process (certain colors and shapes). Then I had it printed and put in a nice horizontal frame (the matting was faked in Illustrator).
Positive Teens magazine gave me a lot of creative freedom. This illustration accompanied a poem that was submitted by one of the many teenage contributors. It was hand drawn and then colored in Photoshop.
Here’s a vector illustration designed for Positive Teens magazine. The artwork pops quite nicely by just adding some drop shadows and having the pieces overlap. This illustration accompanied an article about NASCAR.
