Digital Illustration
In Latin, “libra” means “scales”, which results in this constellation being closely associated with its nearest neighbour, Virgo, often depicted holding these scales of justice.
Much like a set of scales, illustrations can stand on their own and have a simple, straightforward function. However, they also often have more impact when used in another medium, much like how Lady Justice wields her scales to give them a greater purpose – transforming them from a tool to a symbol. Some of my illustrative work has simply helped me sharpen my skills, and other projects here grew beyond their two dimensions, coming to life as pretty cool physical objects.
A duvet cover and matching pillowcases based on P. Craig Russell’s illustrations of a shapeshifting fox spirit’s kimono in Sandman: Dream Hunters.
The challenge
Completely swept up reading this, I wanted to bring Russell’s vision to life. In the story, the fox protects her love while he dreams, so this seemed the perfect motif to promote calm and safe sleep. The hand-drawn designs weren’t very consistent, making it difficult to use them as a reference when recreating them for my bedding.
Highlight
Determining that there were 3 distinct elements – an ornate pointed “tail”, a foxtail border, and a pattern of foxtails that morph into stars – I wanted to use them all to capture the magical shapeshifting feel the kimono has. Using the ornate element only in the corners allowed me to use the border on two sides and make them slowly morph into a pattern once they meet in the centre.
Room for improvement
Imprecise printer guidelines resulted in the pattern on the pillowcases not looking as seamless as I’d hoped. There was a limit to how many questions I could ask the support staff of a consumer-aimed website beforehand, but had this been mass-produced for distribution I would’ve asked for more clarification and a print sample if possible.
Two designs for Jam Industries’ printed holiday card.
The challenge
Sending out a holiday card appropriate regardless of our customers’ celebratory traditions. Designing something that communicated the feel of the holiday season without using Christmas iconography was particularly tricky for me, since it’s my primary association to that time of year.
Highlight
Needing these to be bilingual, I had the idea of taking it one step further and using “happy holidays” in several more languages. Building a tree with the words was inspired by the shape of Jam’s logo, and I loved my idea of dotting all the “I”s in red to look like baubles.
Room for improvement
I had a bit of a cultural blind spot and originally didn’t consider how a Christmas tree isn’t all-inclusive! Once this flaw was pointed out, I had the idea to use a snowflake instead. It’s not as cool as the tree design, but it worked, and this taught me to be more aware of my audience for all aspects of a project.
An update to the logo of a company that supplies digital tools for hair and beauty salons.
The challenge
Having marketed itself as a software company for the last 15 years, Fixit was gradually starting to shape its brand to appeal more to the salon industry and lifestyle. With this shift it made sense to tone down the logo’s “I.T.” emphasis, but the owners weren’t ready for a drastic change yet.
Highlight
With its big round curls, I always thought the “fix” part had character, so I created an “it” to match. Inspired by the ligature of the “f” and “i”, I tried merging some of the other letters together in order to turn this into a logo – not just text. Playfully extending the “x” to dot the “i” sort of mimics the shape of a lock of hair or a drop of water.
Room for improvement
Small adjustments made the shape and spacing of the letters simpler and more consistent – such as trimming the bottom serifs and increasing the height of the top one on the “x” – but the “it” still seems smaller than the rest. Adjusting serifs and spacing on these letters would help balance the logo. I’ve learned that it’s ok to “cheat” the math a little in order to trick the eye!
A throw rug recreating the magic carpet’s design from the animated movie Aladdin.
The challenge
Recreating a faithful design of something the film always portrayed stretched and warped as the carpet moved around. I looked for official merchandise to use as a reference, but everything I found lacked detail. A DVD bonus feature showed the original flat pattern that was digitally mapped onto the hand-drawn animation, but it was too small and of too low quality to be a good reference.
Highlight
Even though the quality was poor, I used a screenshot from the DVD feature as a layout and size reference. In order to redraw the details correctly, I combed through many stills from the film to get clear shots of each element. Once the carpet was printed, I made tassels out of yarn for a whimsical finishing touch.
Room for improvement
Only after I had sent my design to the printer was I informed that they didn’t use the typical 4-colour process. I had to do a quick conversion, which left my design a little darker and flatter than originally intended. With a bit more time and the ability to get a sample printed, the end result would’ve popped and been more vibrant.
A logo concept to represent Canadian music.
The challenge
Being a big fan of music and having a lot of pride in my country’s artists, I wanted a symbol of my fandom that was more than just the Canadian flag. It had to be simple, but cool enough that you might want to wear it on a t-shirt.
Highlight
Using the maple leaf seemed obvious as it is a simple and universal symbol for Canada. But there were several options to represent music: notes, sheet music, a treble clef, etc. Realising that the curves on a music note could easily flow into the shape of the leaf, I decided to merge these together.
Room for improvement
I wasn’t very bold or comfortable making things my own, which is why you see my hesitancy in reshaping the leaf – first with a fade out, and later a more versatile version with lines that fake the effect. Neither option really fits with the style of the rest of the logo and today I would simplify the shape for a more consistent feel.
A set of stickers included in a Robson guitar kit, all drawn to mimic iconic music logos.
The challenge
Figuring out which of the many amazing, intricately hand-drawn classic logos I could adapt as Robson’s own, while still clearly looking like a tribute to the original. Allowing the player to personalise their equipment with these, this kit would have a bit of old rock nostalgia and stand out from the competition.
Highlight
Replacing some elements from the original logos that didn’t quite work with our family-oriented brand. I was particularly happy with my idea to replace the guns (Guns N Roses), dagger (Bon Jovi) and stylicised “A” (Aerosmith) with an illustration or silhouette of our guitar.
Room for improvement
Striving to mimic the shading and colours from the classic counterparts left the monocoloured logos looking flat next to the more detailed ones. Today I would’ve been bold enough to divert a bit from the originals in order to give the simpler logos some shading and texture to make them pop like their more elaborate neighbours.
A logo for a hair salon catering to all genders.
The challenge
Communicating that the salon did not exclusively serve women without spelling it out in words. Also choosing modern, gender-neutral lettering without making the logo completely devoid of personality.
Highlight
Finding different ways to illustrate the genders was a very fun part of the sketching process. Even though I couldn’t use all of them for the final logo, I was very happy with the wildly different approaches I found to illustratrate the concept in a clean and simple way.
Room for improvement
With the LGTBQ+ movement having grown so much in the years since this was designed, the gender symbols might be alienating to some of the salon's customers. Today I’d instead consider researching the transgender symbol (⚧), which I’ve seen used in more gender-fluid contexts, or opt for a generic long/short hair design similar to one of my earlier sketches shown here.
A student project to trace and recreate a vehicle as realistically as possible in 2D software.
The challenge
Creating gradients with the technology at this time was a bit limited. Linear and radial gradients were reliable, but using mesh – which allows you to shape the gradient – was difficult and often yielded funny-looking results. Furthermore, support for transparency – which would allow shapes to be layered and fade into one another – was not yet widespread.
Highlight
Honing my skills as an illustrator by learning how to draw curves efficiently and quickly, as well as mastering the gradient tool by learning its behaviour. There are probably hundreds of shapes layered here to create this motorcycle, and it took over 40 hours to draw and shade, so it was really great practice.
Room for improvement
With today’s omnipresence of CGI in films and on TV, no one would ever mistake this for a photograph. Adding a ground shadow would’ve helped sell the illusion, though. Certain areas, such as the chrome tubes and red fuel tank, could use a bit more work to add details and contrast in order to create a more realistic effect.
A pixel art representation of 5 characters from a comic called W.i.t.c.h.
The challenge
The early days of the internet saw a trend of making small illustrations pixel by pixel called “cartoon dolls.” Many people created base bodies you could download to “dress” yourself, which resulted in most always having the same poses. I wanted to try out this medium, but do something more dynamic and different.
Highlight
Figuring out how a tiny change in a line’s direction could affect the illustration and seeing how little I could get away with drawing to create recognisable likenesses. While 8-bit illustrations are no longer common, I find that this learning experience still comes in handy when making sure small icons are understandable, even though these are no longer drawn one dot at a time.
Room for improvement
Darker areas on the torsos really gave the bodies a shape, but the shading (or lack of it) on the rest of the figures is comparatively quite poor. Over the years I’ve given thought to how to apply art technique to digital art, like using a few alternating pixels to create a fade-out effect, and darker tints to make a simple illustration feel a lot fuller.
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