An Illustration... of my own doing!

Well, a couple days back I was offered a commission to create a full illustration to be used as a wedding gift... Me, the comic book colourist! A wedding illustration! Just odd haha :)

Alot of the time people dont take the time to check out a description for a piece of work I've done, and this leads to a misunderstanding of what a colourist is! I think this was one of those times. After getting in touch with the client and explaining that i'm primarily a colourist, and that what I do solely involves bringing images or pages to life through colour and direction and rarely is the lineart ever mine (I like to be honest regarding my limitations) , they were still adamant I was the man for the job... what a nice faith filled person, I could have well and truly cocked this up so to speak!

I dont get to draw very often so i'm always quite rusty, and this in turn leads to self doubt with whether i'm going to be able to come up with the goods. But this piece was fine as it was a more graphic approach. I was given a brief outline and some influences to check out and left to it... Makes a change from all the editorial red tape I usually deal with in comics work (change this, change that... $%@* off!!!)

I was told the guy was a handsome joker, and the girl struck me as a little Audrey Hepburn (Ihad a few select photos to reference so the likenesses are spot on). They were to be Honeymooning in NY. Art influences were Lichstenstein, Lowry and some of my own old graphic stuff. I added a vintage deco vibe (thinking back to old holiday posters from the 40's-50's) and just went at it. Put my own twist in there, threw in a little subtle humour and just let the piece grow on its own. I was asked to make a few minor changes which were fine as they made the piece as a whole alot better, which can never be a bad thing. Sent it off and they loved it... result, fear dissipating, reflief consuming ;)

Its not my usual work for sure, but I do actually really like it... The lineart works with this level of simplicity, the washed out colours and textures sit well and the NY theme was carried off to a decent extent... all in all i'm pretty pleased with it for a days work (90% of the time was spent headbutting my desk through stress and frustration at being so shit at drawing anything right now! Everyone know the feeling i'm talking about).

Anyway, again I hope you like. And get in touch if you'd like something like this :D



RAD!