Year of the Dragon

Just created this vector illustration of Daenerys Targaryen from HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ - fans of the show will get it….other people need to start watching it!!

(click to enlarge)

‘Warriors’ Illustration Example

I’m often asked how I go about creating the detailed illustrations I produce for poster/canvas printing, so decided (with kind permission of my client David) to show a basic outline here of how I generally go about my design process.

David requested an original, one-off illustration of the cult movie ‘The Warriors’ for himself, and left me with a blank canvas to create whatever I wanted.  I had a think, and came up with the concept of using the (30-YEAR-OLD SPOILER ALERT!!)  face-off at the end of the film as the basis for the design, and sent him my inital sketch to see if he liked the idea.

The general idea was showing ‘The Warriors’ with backs to the viewer, facing off against their main enemies from the movie, with their ‘turf’ Coney Island as the background and setting.  Next I produced a more detailed illustration for myself, with notes to start bringing the idea together.

Once I had the characters decided, I began to sketch out the main ones in pencil, again adding notes for lighting, shading, direction, etc.

Once I had them looking the way I wanted, I would scan them in high-resolution and take into Adobe Illustrator.  Here I would start filling in solid lines, before doing some colour blocking and finish off by doing the details, shading, hair, and so on.

Once the foreground characters were done, I would move onto creating the background (in this instance, done by researching the Coney Island beach, boardwalk, etc) before adding in all the background characters, and any other necessary extras.  This is often the hardest part, especially in a multi-character piece.  With this one I decided to have ‘The Warriors’ looming large in foreground, while trying to capture the aggression of the other gangs in front of them.

Finally, once I felt the overall tone of the piece was right, I sent it onto David for his approval before sending it off to the printer.  I rarely send anything to the client until I am happy with it myself, that way there are usually less alterations required, as they are seeing the final piece as we discussed.  Any changes tend to then be just moving items around.  However, it never goes to print unless they are happy with it, as they will (hopefully) have it hanging on a wall for many years, and the main thing for me is that they love it!

Here was how the final piece turned out (click to enlarge):

10-Minute Poster

Decided to get the creative juices flowing for 2012, by designing a quick illustrated poster for the movie ‘Drive‘ starring Ryan Gosling….

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

An Lanntair Banners

Recently created a series of web banners for An Lanntair Arts Centre website, one of which I’ve included below:

Illustrated Canvas

This was an illustration I created for a client that was printed onto canvas - it depicts the recipient of the Christmas present on his motorbike, being thrown into the midst of a ‘Grand Theft Auto’ chase scenario!

Happy Holidays!

Winding down this week with work so just wanted to take the opportunity to thank all my visitors (regular and accidental!), for the continued support throughout 2011.  Hope you all have a great Xmas and New Year!

See you in 2012!! 

DEADLINES FOR XMAS!

DEADLINES:

For orders outwith Isle of lewis – SUNDAY 11th DECEMBER

For local orders – FRIDAY 16th DECEMBER

Have started working on unique, one-off illustrations for this year’s Christmas gifts – ideal for printing onto canvas, poster, or as a framed picture.  These original illustrations can be of anything imaginable, perfect if you struggle to find the right gift for a loved one.

Contact me at 07799066458 or drop me a line at domhnallsmith@hotmail.com to discuss what you would like done.

Here are a few more samples from recent times to get your ideas flowing – http://www.donaldsmithgraphicdesign.co.uk/page_canvases.html

LTD EDITION XMAS PRESENTS!

Time is starting to run out for sending orders by post, so make sure you get your orders in asap, to ensure you have enough time for framing and wrapping these – http://www.donaldsmithgraphicdesign.co.uk/ourshop/

 

There are a few different prints available, or if you would prefer to order a UNIQUE Christmas gift then see the post below for details…..

Socrates

Haven’t done any of my 10-minute illustrations for a while – this felt like a fitting subject for today: