Digital Illustration – Motivational Giraffe

I made a cute (and perhaps even funny) animal illustration out of a quick sketch I scribbled down in trying to cheer myself up. I’ve not seriously looked at the subject in question before though, and I rather enjoyed looking at reference material for the giraffe caricature. I learned that there were many types of giraffe, which I suppose shouldn’t have been a shock. I boiled down the essence of the creature in my illustration.

You probably recognise the animal below from the long neck, the horns, and the spots. But! Did you know, giraffes actually have those camouflage spots all over their bodies? For ease of reading, there’s no need to adopt physical traits 1:1. Spots all over the body would have made the figure too cluttered. You have to be the judge of what you simplify and what you discard, when creating a cartoon out of a pre-exiting subject.

I know I’ll sound like a broken record for those who have read my more recent posts that contain my works, but this really is the last vector art I’ll be making in Adobe illustrator for the foreseeable future. I’m going to look at using different programs that I can make more experimental digital paintings in. The overall style will change in relation to the tools, but my sensibilities remain the same. I’m exited more than nervous to venture into Clip Studio Paint. It’s not an ‘industry standard’ but at this point, I don’t see why I shouldn’t use it to make personal work.

One drawback I found in using Abode illustrator for this mid-century style illustration was that I could never render enough elements to form a background unless said background elements lacked in texture. Obviously, I don’t use the program in a standard way (if there is one) but it was frustrating how slow the program would run if I began to use too many textures (or individual objects) in a piece. I’m lacking in skill when it comes to drawing environments, so I want to improve in that area, and moving to raster painting, I can draw with much more freedom.

I found the same digital image prints differently on varying card stock. It’s muted on this textured, cream card, but the image is more vibrant on a rougher, grey card I had on-hand. There are pros and cons to the characteristics of both card types mentioned. I’ve still yet to look into different card for mass printing from home. I am in the middle of researching those who stock card and envelopes for bulk purchase. I’ve gotten my hands on some free samples, to mull over the colours, sizes, and textures of envelopes. Testing paper for printing on… is much more intimidating.

It might be quite some time before I share any more polished work, given I want to teach myself digital painting, but I’ve been wanting to share some graphic design books here, and maybe other media and resources, too… who knows!

Good-Bye Winter – Hello Spring!!

No matter what, time marches on, huh? It’s already spring! I’m very happy about that, though. A change of season is exactly what I need.

I said a while back that I’d practice raster illustration – digital painting – and… I’ve not yet done that. Some time last year I did invest in Clip Studio Paint. Unfamiliar programs are always intimidating, not unlike new mediums, and since I’m in no rush to familiarise myself with the program, I’ve only drawn a little in it. I really should have made it a New Year’s goal to work in it and understand the interface and tools.

While it was still the cold and rainy winter, I made a vector illustration of a little ermine in the powder snow. You might not tell if I wasn’t to say, but each snowflake here is unique. I would like to print these next winter on cards, mayhaps.

I dug into an older illustration that I’d used for risograph printing, because I still liked the full-colour image and I made a mock birthday card illustration out of it. I still have a lot to learn typography-wise, but it’s good practice. I want to make new purposely made illustrations for occasion cards.

With the weather brightening up, and even heating up, I’ll have more drive and energy to make!

Op and Pop Art – Malika Favre

It’s been a while sine I had written about a designer or illustrator. Today, let’s look at the artist Malika Favre. Favre creates artworks that incorporate the sensilbilies of op art (optical art manipulating the viewer’s perception of colour and form that often result in illusion) and pop art.

Cover illustration for Equality Highlights issue 18

Window display illustration for Bucherer

Favre has worked for many magazines as a cover illustrator, including, Vogue, Metropolitan Magazine, and The New Yorker. She has designed book covers for Penguin Press, too.

---

Personal Works

The few personal works that Favre offers as prints, are sensual and evocative. The confidence in line work, the vivid and emotive feel are sensibilities that are felt throughout her works. With the very limited colour palette, here you can see Favre pushing negative space.

Egyptian

The Kama Sutra

Alpha Pin Ups

---

Object Design

Let’s have a look at Farve’s design choices applied to physical media.

Below are DVD covers for reprints of the films Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Favre’s covers were made in 2015, and 2017, respectively.

For those who are already fans of Pedro Almodóvar’s films, I can see the appeal in owning these reissues with Favre’s slick cover and disk designs, but I feel that the illustrations would surely draw in new viewers, too.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! DVD case, insert, and disks

Favre’s also illustrated many covers for The New Yorker, and illustrated editorials for the same publication. Given the demographic of the magazine, the sophisticated and informed fiction, poetry, and articles are a good match for Favre’s sleek and precise artworks. The illustrations are not going to steal the readers’ attention away from the body copy, and instead elevate the overall presentation.

The New Yorker cover illustration, 2016

Editorial illustration for Covering the Cops, The New Yorker

---

Favre’s distinct style and work suits very much print media; magazine and book covers, editorial illustration, poster design, etc. Because the feel of these works aren’t chasing a trend, I don’t see these illustrations losing their charm in future years. As with any particular style, it’s worth noting that they work best with particular demographics and themes.

I am very much impressed with Favre’s use of colour – all of it is flat, leading to ease of reading the optical illusions. What characteristics within Favre’s work stand out to you, dear reader?

Illustration – Musical Bear

First post of the New Year. A little mid-century bear illustration. He’s having a grand old time jamming out the tunes!

I made this with the intentional limit of colours thinking I’ll try to print it as a Risograph at a later date. I’ll be happy if it turns out well, but most digital pieces will end up in a portfolio regardless.

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or promises to myself – I never do. It’s not directly related to creativity, but just being honest with myself, and being kinder to myself is something that I am woking on. Always. I do, however, have goals to reach. It helps to set those.

Risograph Printing – Circus Horse

I tore into an old Illustrator file and took it apart to experiment more in Risograph printing before winter break. I chose to revisit the circus horse that I vectored much earlier in the year. Separating the layers and simplifying the image was a little bit of a pain, since I made the original image with no intent to print it as a Risograph. But the outcome is something that I’m very happy with!

Riso circus horse!!

I had planned for the illustration to use four inks, and I would have liked them to have been black, teal, red, and yellow. The yellow ink would have been used for detail on the blanket and to add texture to the background. However, I wasn’t happy with the results, so I cut that colour out all together. I think the three colours used here work together well.

The majority of the horses are printed on different coloured sugar paper. Some are printed on white card. I would like to look into printing the illustration on card of different colours in the future. I might even be able to include the fourth colour if I can tweak the original image enough, but I don’t consider it a necessity for the image to work anymore.

Horses on different coloured papers

Thinking about it, I would like to try printing grey horses, with dappled fur either using black or teal for the detail. Really, there’s nothing stopping me from printing fluro pink horses other than my own sensibilities.

I tidied up the tiger assets I already had for a mini print

After cleaning up the tiger illustration I had practiced Riso prating with, I made the graphic into an A5 mini print and then printed the same image onto card to make B5 greeting cards. It’s just experimentation, but I’ve learned a lot thus far. I’d like to make some illustrations from scratch with the intent of printing them this way – it’ll streamline the whole process.

Risoraph Printing & Vinyl Stickers – Test Run

A little update to the personal stationery project I’d started quite some time ago. I’ve had access to print some trial sticker sheets and gave Risograph printing another go after a long absence. It was exiting! Next time I share some printed works I’ll go further in-depth with each method used. I didn’t record every step of either of the printing processes, but I’ve made a note to do so for the next round.

---

Risograph Printing

It had been… a veeeery long time since I had made anything with a Risograph printer. I’ve posted some Riso work here before. But I need to get back to grips with the machine. I printed some simple note cards using only 3 inks; red, blue, and black. So including the card or paper colour, the card’s design uses 4 colours – never mind that black isn’t really a colour.

Risograph print note cards

Even though I made these rather impulsively, with assets already on-hand, I found separating the layers of the tiger graphic simple enough. Though the graphic was not designed with the intent of Riso printing, the elements of the illustration were grouped sensibly which streamlined the whole process.

Here’s also where I want to say that the mid-century design sensibilities of some of the illustrations I’ve made recently really lend themselves to this printing aesthetic.

Risograph tigers

I think the tiger turned out very cute and suites these bold colours. I ensured to knockout the tiger’s body entirely on the blue layer, or else I’d end up with purple as the two inks overlap. I used half-tones on the blue layer and black layer as too much solid colour can result in track marks (ink streaks resembling an automobile’s tyre tracks).

---

Sticker Printing

There are a few different sticker paper qualities that I can use; glossy, matt, and transparent. I intend to try out all three different types of paper, and get a better idea of what qualities suit the different visual styles of sticker designs.

B5 sticker sheet featuring two large dragons

Below are some dragon sticker sheets; before and after being separated and trimmed with the guillotine. They’re printed on white, glossy paper.

There were a couple of tiny cutting errors on this sheet. But it’s a trial run, so I’m able to sort out any mishaps (big or small) after seeing these printed physically.

Though I didn’t take photographs of the process of arranging the assets for print, next time I’ll take screenshots to show the steps taken to print these. I’ll be printing on different types of sticker paper, so when I share them, I’ll mention the quality and characteristics in-depth as I compare them.

---

Well, that’s it until next time! I’m learning a lot as I go, but it feels good to have some physical copies of digital pieces to hold at last! There will always be some sort of discrepancy in colour when printing digital pieces as printers can’t always reproduce colours accurately. (Some colours just aren’t ‘printer-safe’.) I look forward to more printing and experimentation with Riso!

Maurice Laban – BOAC Poster Illustration

Being stuck inside most of the day, with no plans to go anywhere anytime soon, I’m daydreaming about travel. I wrote about hotel luggage labels from the ‘golden age of travel’ last year. Now, I want to share some posters by British freelance illustrator Maurice Laban (1912-1970). The following poster advertisements were were made in the late 1950s, and were used to promote the British Overseas Airways Corporation (or BOAC) and Qantas.

The images I’m sharing here are from the art auction site invaluable. Go have a look over there to see these posters at a higher resolution (as well as other vintage posters from this era) if you’re into this type of commercial art.

U.S.A. | Canada

This is my favourite of the posters. I love the racoon’s eyes being stylised as stars! Quite dazzling! The racoon is a little more anthropomorphic than the other animals in this set – standing on its back legs, and wearing a bow tie.

Far East
VIA EUROPE AND INDIA

Africa

Australia
NEW ZEALAND

Britain / Europe

Another poster that I really like. I just find the dogs’ faces very humorous.

These digitised images here aren’t likely as vivid as the physical posters; the original works having been produced through serigraphy (screen printing).

Creatives behind commercial illustration in the 20th century weren’t generally recognised for their contributions as graphic designers are today, and it makes finding information on freelance illustrators such as Maurice Laban difficult. But the fact that these pieces were preserved at all shows their lasting appeal… thank you for the inspiration, Maurice Laban!

Digital Illustration – Momma Fox Vector

To keep up digital artworking practice, I dug up an old sketch of a fox to work from. I still really liked the shapes that the fox was made up of, so I didn’t have to tweak anything before working on it. It is a pretty static pose, but I have more kinetic compositions in the works.

This digital artworking exercise was carried out in Adobe Illustrator. I followed the same steps I usually do: begin with a sketch, trace it in Illustrator, and then deck it out with colour and textures.

I traced my sketch into basic shapes

You can see the basic shapes the figure is made of. You may not think about it consciously, but basic geometric shapes all carry some ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ associations. The triangle was used a lot in construction here. You may associate triangles with progression, instability, aggression, and unpredictability. The fox is softened by the use of semi ellipses though.

I used a good four or five vector brushes to get the analogue-like textured feel that I wanted. There are probably better brushes out there (to download) for this sort of work, but I’m making do with what I have just now.

A MESS

Above, you can see how messy the canvas got while applying textures. I used the Pathfinder tools (Unite, Intersect, Minus Front…) extensively while adding textures. I’m sure there’s a more conventional way to go about it, but it’s how I taught myself to apply such details.

The end piece!!

I’m very happy with the colours of the fox, and how well the initial sketch’s silhouette translated into this vectored artwork. I feel content to make further digital works in this graphic style. I… might even want to make a set of caniformia illustrations! AR-WOOOO!!

Personal Project Work – Writing Stationery

At the tail end of last year I had the idea of making downloadable stationery. I wanted to refine some of my skills in Adobe programs and learn some new ones. I had the idea of making weekly planners and letter paper sets – the latter being something not everyone uses nowadays. Still being on a mid-century illustration high, the designs I worked on have that feel about them. I’m sharing a some of them here.

Organisation is key to getting tasks done, so I wanted to make practical stationery to aid those who want to get organised, and benefit from writing tasks down physically. The compositions of the weekly planners are simple enough. I chose to divide a page into seven blocks – for seven days of the week – focusing on a countryside illustration. I made two sheets.

Details from two separate weekly planner illustrations

I think the weekly planner illustrations turned out very friendly. If I remove the text, they look like background assets ready to be part of a fuller, livelier illustration. I enjoyed filling them out with just enough details for interest, but balancing the empty spaces for the use of writing.

I think the composition of letter paper is much more straightforward. I made a lot of pages that were detailed around the corners or edges of the page, while leaving the centre free of distractions.

I don’t think I’ll be using the above template as a writing paper as the stylisation isn’t as playful as the other ideas I had for compositions and subject matter. The target audience for such a niche item is more likely wanting to use designs that are much more stylised and fun. But it’s worth keeping in mind if I want to revisit the composition itself.

One set of letter paper I wanted to make was nautical – anything to do with ocean life or perhaps boats – so I made a few pages to go together as a set. I think having the nautical paper lined works well to reinforce the ocean waves feeling, but I can of course remove them. I do want to give the option to users to choose unlined paper to write upon.

In making a lot of similar assets for themed writing paper sets I have the choice to recycle some of the assets towards sticker sheets etc.

Ocean friend illustration assets

There are aspects of the digital stationary project that aren’t finished at all – I have some designs that need to be touched up, or pieces that I’m unhappy with. I have yet to decide on where to host or sell PDFs of the stationary. I really enjoyed making these even though I did find it trying at times. I’d say I learned a lot. While writing this up, I realised that I can even make colouring in and activity sheets if I think I can contribute something that isn’t already being provided by other services.

If for some reason I can’t move forward with the idea of downloadable stationary, I can add the designs I made to my portfolio for now. This year, I want to make a lot of things for personal growth and portfolio needs!

Adobe Illustrator – Just leaf it to me!

Here are recent vector illustrations of leaves made using Adobe Illustrator; I wanted to post some of them here. Made using basic knowledge and basic skills, but each time I practice a (digital) skill, I get better at it. I also don’t often draw or study plants enough!

Recently I’ve seen that my peers from the graphic design degree course we took are steadily moving forward with their personal goals and projects during the latest school term. I really want to make use of the campus facilitates to use the Risograph printer, sticker machine, and laser cutter etc. but I can’t use the facilities yet – maybe in the New Year I’ll be able to go into town to use the resources safely. The wait is really hard.

More leaves; differentiated by size and texture pattern

Reflecting, I need to organise what I have done this ‘term’ so far, what goals I need to meet, if I need to set some new goals, and who I want to talk to for advice to move onwards. I do realise it’s important to think positively at present, and not lament what I can’t do! Best to keep looking towards the next goal post.