New Work: Mark and Dave go shopping

Just finished of some illustrations for the lovely people at Umbrella Design.  A large part of the project consisted of character design which is always fun to do, my figures were to be based loosely on two real people Mark and Dave.  My illustrations are to feature in their blog a diary of adventures in travel and shopping. The Mark and Dave go shopping blog offers a unique perspective from the duo, tips on what to buy and where and a little culture too.

Dave left and Mark on the right.

These are two trendy guys and designing such happening fellows can always be a stretch when you don't consider yourself to be trendy having a much different definition of the word.  Thankfully however I got a nice run down of their likes and what they wear.

Let me introduce you to Dave…

Name: David, but all his mates call him Dave.

Age: 29 ish. He's kinda geeky, and wants to thought of as really cool... in fact beyond cool. Of course he isn’t, he is in fact a bit of a twat, but nice, really nice in a bloke sort of way. Likes women who have an oriental twist, but always keeps them at arms length. I call them 'mysterious girls', cos they drift in and out of his life and none of us ever actually meet them. We only know about them by the morning smile of his face!

Where he shops: Carnaby Street for trainers, Ted Baker for shirts, Urban Outfitters, and surprisingly, Acne, which is uber cool. Some vintage bits from Brick Lane and Spitalfields, especially sun glasses and picture frames.

Jeans: Cheap Monday 

Watch: Vintage

Boxers or commando: Calvin Klein Boxers

Interests: Cool pubs and restaurants with friends. Sunday league football, gym... only when necessary. Pop-up Art Galleries, street art, photography, gigs headlining up and coming bands, such as: The Black Keys, The Cribs, Twin Atlantic or The Maccabees.

Job: Graphic Designer 

Loves: Geeky gadgets

Favorite Drink: Great beer

Drives: No need, Dave lives in London, but would like a vintage Triumph.

Personal Head Space: Need to make a change and find stuff that inspires him! 

Dave as a finished illustration.

And now on to Mark…

Age: early 30’s, trapped in the wrong era, should have been born mid 1800's then could have been a poet riding an old bike round a village green, a romantic at heart, yeah I know, I am a twat!

Where I shop: Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Fenwick Men’s, Diesel, Paul Smith. Some

Vintage bits from Notting Hill, especially furniture.

Jeans: Diesel

Watch: Tag

Boxers or commando: Diesel Boxers

Interests: Out door stuff, cycling, cricket. Love great coffee with mates on a Sunday morning. Play occasionally in a band and open mic nights with guitar. Sketching (belong to urban sketchers).

Bands: Keane, Band of Skulls, Muse, Paul Weller, Florence and The Machine, Elvis Costello

Job: Furniture Designer

Favorite Drink: G&T

Drives: BMW Motorbike

Personal Head Space: Looking for direction and want to go and see great stuff! Like Dave, I need some ideas to guide me to my next project in life, what ever that might be.

Mark in all his illustrated glory

As the blog progresses we get to see more how they both develop via the travels and adventures in shopping they have.  

Mark and Dave's adventures in Brighton.

Good luck to Mark and Dave I hope they continue to trek around the country with their wallets ready and shopping bags full.  Visit Mark and Dave go Shopping blog here.

Go to my website for more illustrations.

 

Breakdown of an Illustration

I thought I’d write a little about how I would go through the process of illustrating an image in a step by step way including some of the rough work concepts and developmental sketches.

The following artwork is for a self initiated project to draw the cover artwork for Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species.  First up is my initial idea, rendered in pencil the rough shows the basic composition of the cover, back cover on the left hand side and front on the right.  My idea for the cover was to create a montage of imagery of Darwin and some of the subjects associated with his theory laid down in his book, The HMS Beagle, Finches, Darwin’s study and the Galapagos tortoise.

This concept was sketched down to quickly capture down on paper my montage idea It includes a youthful and older versions of Darwin.

Above I've further developed the image giving it more detail in an effort to see how more finished looking elements work together.  I've added in some stylized waves swirling around the main montage.

 Added clouds in around the edges to fill in the space. These can be knocked back in the final art so not to interfere with the type.

Here colour is added, I wanted to do the final in hues of blue, my choice of blue to use needs further thought.

Here I’ve done a more finished image of the central composition of the illustration.  This is done in pen and ink and I’ve shaded it in a cross hatched way to see how it might look as a variation.  I’ve also added the “Darwin’s Finches” in a way to highlight the changes in their beaks.

The older Darwin here, illustrated in a simpler style without cross hatch shading, as the colour I will add will add the shading I need.  I wanted to develop his likeness more and have singled him out in order to work on his features more.

The finished image, I’ve drawn all the elements separately and added them together in a layered file so I can move them around and change colours more easily.  

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