I cut my own hair to avoid formalities with my barber.
My illustration for The Little Chimp Society's "Secret Self" Zine Volume 1. Each zine is a revealing collection of portraits and secrets from an international group of artists and designers. Each participant was asked to share something they had never shared with the public before and to create an accompanying illustration. While some are serious and others are silly, all of the secrets give you an insight into the psyches of the artists.
Step 1: As usual I start out with a grid that determines the conceptual and compositional guidlines. In this case the piece is about the weight of the top part of the frame coming down on the subject in the bottom right corner. A series of diagonal lines connecting at the intersection where the subject are laid down. Then I begin sketching.
Step 1a: Visualize grid better by breaking it into a hierarchy of segments. The red lines are the conceptual segments of the grid and the blue lines determine the rest and general structure of the illustration.
Step 2: Bring into Illustrator and digitize following the grid as closely as possible.
Step 2a: Visualize without sketch and ensure anchor points all intersect properly and grid is intact.
Step 3: Convert to shapes. As usual I visualize the illustration in grayscale to determine value structure before I can begin to think about colors.
Step 4: Color. In this case I wanted a strong contrast between subject and background. The subject is in fear and dull against the perceived loud and colorful surroundings so it felt best to retain the grayscale colorway of the subject and use the loudest possible colors for the rest,
Step 4a: Double check integrity of illustration relative to grid.
