Globe/Hands

Howdy, folks. Doin’ okay? Got no complaints. Cold Monday night in the city. Just typing away as I write the next newsletter. For this month, I’ll write about this next illustration job I did for a client.

For this newsletter, will be writing about my piece, Globe/Hands. This illustration was a mashup of traditional and digital techniques, from pencil layouts to watercolors and acrylics to Adobe Fresco. This job was for the Cherokee Nubian Travel Agency. It started with the client describing what the illustration would look like to represent the business: two hands holding the globe with a swirl of clouds around it.

Started with a pencil layout, then started adding watercolors, blending tones, let it all seep into the work. After I did that, the next step was to import the artwork into Adobe Fresco and add digital colors, using digital tools such as blending, brush and pencil. No sharp outlines. Even with the hands, blending tones in the hands, add some lighting to it. Gives a contrast with the globe and wanted to add clarity to all the visual elements in the illustration.

The job just grew. I thought it would be a traditional illustration with pencils, watercolors and acrylics. But it was missing something and going digital would solve it. When I did the clouds, I needed to push it further. Used brushes and blending tools in Fresco to enhance the clouds that I did by brush, that by combining the two, the traditional and the digital, I found something that would click. It became more textural, wispy, somewhat in motion, while the hands and the globe were static, adding contrast between the two.

Added some more digital touch ups in the hands and the globe, but not too much. Had to keep the contrast together, so each visual element stood out and the viewer could see it all, and not be confused by it.

I do the best I can. When I am working on an illustration job, I try to give it all I got, not phone it in. It’s something I learned from other artists I met. Go above and beyond the job. Put your creative ideas into the process. It’s not a chore, it’s getting paid to be creative. Impress the client. Show them that you got that edge.

Well, that’s about it. Working on a new illustration job with another film client. Will keep you posted. Want to thank everyone for congratulating me on my work for Monsters LLC. It was a job I did before the new year and hope to post some of those sketches too. Hope you’re well and talk to you soon.