Forgot to post these a while back, as I was just finishing them during my period of moving back to Aberdeen. First up is a book cover I created for the author Angus Peter Campbell (Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul). I also designed the layout of the entire novel inside for him:
I also designed a book cover, and layout, for Alasdair Campbell’s (Alasdair a’ Bhocsair) book of Scottish Gaelic plays:
The Gaelic Society of Inverness asked me to design the marketing materials for their annual concert, using the theme ‘Homelands‘. The concert takes place at the beginning of May, and you can see the poster I designed below, which was one of several pieces that were created:
I recently created a few design items for the online shop Hebrideanstore.com including a poster, advert, and so on. Below you can see the large advertising banner that was also created, for using at their trade/craft fairs:
You can visit them here – www.hebrideanstore.com - to see what gifts they have to offer you….
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):
Recently created a series of web banners for An Lanntair Arts Centre website, one of which I’ve included below:
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!
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
This Friday, December 2nd, sees a charity ladies pamper night taking place in Ness FC Social Club. All proceeds go to Cancer Research UK, so go along to show your support! Click on the poster below for all other details:
Designed some artwork for the release of the song ‘The Bomb’ by new Inverness electro duo Them & Us. One half of the duo is 15-year old Liam Macleod, (Disclaimer: a cousin of mine!) who recently became one of the youngest artists to play the Ironworks venue in Inverness. You can hear their maiden effort here – http://soundcloud.com/themandus/newest-release-compressed - and hopefully the next couple of years we’ll start to hear more from them!
Have recently finished creating a website for www.barvas-holiday-house.co.uk, a holiday property now available for short & long term lets. The property is situated on the west side of the Isle of Lewis, in a location ideal for visiting all the major tourist sites.
