Since I am travelling this week and won’t be able to spend time preparing a blog post, but still wanted to make an update, I’ve decided to share the process behind my latest illustration “Caribbean evening” from my Caribbean series.
Lately all my illustrations have been flat, very simple and stylized. I enjoy this style, but sometimes I feel like I’ve simplified my process way too much and sometimes it seems to me that I haven’t made any progress in a while. I wanted to challenge myself with a more detailed and complicated illustration. I wanted it to be more than just a character or a portrait, I wanted a whole scene where the character is put in an environment and is part of it. Another element I wanted to experiment with is light. I usually go for very simple shading in what resembles day light. This time I decided that I should have more than one light source and the light should play bigger role in the illustration, it should create an atmosphere, mood, special touch. A picture started forming in my mind of a summer evening at the beach, romantic candle light, serenity, soft warm tones, dreamy peaceful character…
I made a quick sketch in my sketchbook, took a picture of it and impatiently started rendering the illustration. It took couple of days and more hours than I expected, but in the end I am pretty happy with the end result and can’t wait to do more in this style! I could have gone even deeper, create more detail, but I also wanted to finish it, before the mood was gone. There’s always time to improve in the next illustration!
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Time: 12- 15h
