We were asked to research two illustrators, one modern and one old-fashioned. I chose Edward Aridzzone as my first reference, and I tried to emulate the black-and-white treatment, as well as the cozy mood of the room. Though I admittedly got distracted researching and found some awesome Franklin Booth illustrations that influenced my treatment of the hatching. I used a dip pen and ink on a slightly textured paper to achieve this illustration.

This illustration was inspired by a contemporary artist named Louise Cunningham. I tried to emulate the simplicity and the charm of her illustrations. I rendered it with bright watercolors and a naïve sort of linework using a brush and ink.

Here we have my planning sketches and notes for the two exercises above. I have the thumbnails up top and some notes concerning the styles on the bottom. On the Louise Cunningham sketch I have reminders that the style is: Simple/Naïve, with Flat Shapes, pretty girls, flowers, bright colors, and the fact that it is decorative.

On the flip side, the Ardizzone art is much more narrative in nature, more classically composed, detailed in linework, and of course, black and white.

Getting the Gist Exercise

In this exercise, I had to choose a article from a newspaper or magazine and create a appropriate illustration for it. I chose an article titled “Cyber-crime gang which stole millions Busted”. I thought to go the humorous route and drew a man hacking a computer, while fully decked out in a stereotypical thief’s ensemble while wearing a devious expression. I thought that the twist of the thief sitting at the computer instead holding a literal bag of money, like he would in this style of illustration, creates a iconic sort of image. The safe he’s sitting on is just a bonus.

At first I sketched a pretty evenly structured person, but then I decided to exaggerate the proportions and make him look extra hunched and pointy. Pointy and hunched seems to be a very easily identifiable “evil” look, so I decided to use it to my advantage.