ATCs (artist trading cards)
· 2D Illustration
This is inspired from a book i saw(book on character design)... now i don't which book and the name of the artist. So fill me up if anyone knows, i like this style..
An illustration has to carry its idea in a single read. If you have to explain it, the drawing did not do its job, and a few of these taught me that the hard way.
I like leaving the construction lines faintly visible underneath. The finished image is more honest when it admits how it was built.
These were made to be looked at as a set, so I kept a thread running through them — a recurring shape, a horizon held at the same height.
A good illustration borrows the economy of a poster and the patience of a painting. Getting both into one frame is the whole game.
Prints change how I draw. Knowing a piece will be held in someone's hands makes me commit to the edges in a way a screen never does.
I let the subject decide the medium — ink for the sharp ones, gouache when the image needs to breathe, digital when I want to keep moving fast.
The pieces that work tend to be the ones I almost abandoned. Pushing through the ugly middle stage is most of what this practice is.
Working in a numbered series keeps me honest about progress. You can line them up and watch the hand learn across the run.
Each of these started as a prompt and a blank square. The constraint is the gift — a single word forces a composition you would never have reached on your own.
I treat a series like this as a place to test one idea at a time: a palette, a kind of mark, a way of cropping the figure right at the edge.
Some of these were drawn to a weekly deadline, and you can feel it — the looser ones are the ones I finished at 2am and decided to keep anyway.
Colour is the last decision I make and usually the hardest. Half of these went through three palettes before they settled into the one you see.
An illustration has to carry its idea in a single read. If you have to explain it, the drawing did not do its job, and a few of these taught me that the hard way.
I like leaving the construction lines faintly visible underneath. The finished image is more honest when it admits how it was built.
These were made to be looked at as a set, so I kept a thread running through them — a recurring shape, a horizon held at the same height.
These are the first series of cards I made in 2011
A good illustration borrows the economy of a poster and the patience of a painting. Getting both into one frame is the whole game.
Prints change how I draw. Knowing a piece will be held in someone's hands makes me commit to the edges in a way a screen never does.
I let the subject decide the medium — ink for the sharp ones, gouache when the image needs to breathe, digital when I want to keep moving fast.
i also made few on the spot.
More illustration work: ← Illustration V - Illustration Friday: A Photoshop Odyssey Through 15 Prompts · Illustration VI - Cinematic Sketches: Where My Love for Movies Meets the Drawing Board →