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To view some of my Entertainment Industry illustrations, click here. |
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The Illustration Process
I truly enjoy producing illustrations — regardless of the subject, style, and media. I've been drawing an painting since I was a child. I'm always seeking to expand my skills and extend the number of styles I can deliver for my clients. I've produced images for both the advertising and the entertainment industry
I typically begin an illustration assignment by obtaining as clear an impression as possible from the client of the result they are seeking. Then I make a number of rough pencil thumbnail sketches exploring various image ideas. This is often combined with research into the art style I intend to use. Once a basic idea is established, I produce up to three clean sketches for the client — this may include color suggestions provided via swatches or a rough paint or marker sketch (included as either an overlay or separate image).
The process involved in producing the final image depends upon the style and media I use. I caution my client that the use of a traditional art style makes any changes to the final image less practical due to the limitations of the media and the expense involved in work-arounds.
Digital Media
I began producing commercial illustration before the existence of desktop computers and related software. Today, I consider my computer hardware and software to be just one of many tools that I use to produce images. Some images are easier and faster to produce on the computer — others are not; I use whichever method best suits the assignment. I find that images that require a 'drawn' or 'painterly' style are still best executed with traditional media — digital media is best for images requiring a photo-realistic style, clean drafted lines, and/or smooth 'airbrushed' tones.
The three greatest advantages of digital media are that you can save multiple copies an image that can be altered into variations as desired, you can work on 'layers' so that elements comprising the image can be added or taken away without affecting other aspects of the image, and you can 'undo' a mistake — something much harder to do with an airbrush or marker.
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Traditional Media
Some illustrations require a traditional media style. This might be due to a desire to achieve a more 'natural' or 'hand-made' quality for the image (i.e., the less 'precise' and 'blended' appearance of brush or pencil strokes), or in some circumstances a lower cost for a slightly 'rougher' image.
I have experience working in pencil, marker, ink, gouache, water color, acrylic, and oil paint. Traditional media images are usually produced larger than their printed size so that they can be scanned or photographed and reduced to maintain quality.
Greyscale images created in pencil (or pencil and marker) are usually quite fast to produce and have the added benefit that they can be easily colorized (as a mono or duo-tone) for varied uses. Painted greyscale images have the same colorization flexibility, but take longer to produce.
As might be expected, images take longer to produce as more details are added and a more precise (photo-realistic) pencil or brush stroke style is used; the 'looser' the image style, the faster it is to create.
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Line Art
Complex line art illustrations are one of the styles that I find are still best produced by hand — though the computer can prove useful to adjust or 'complete' an image after the main artwork is done.
For example, to produce the image for the Cougar Shoe Box (right), I drew half the image by hand, then scanned it into the computer at high resolution and flipped it. The lettering the elements that frame the words was produced with the computer.
Cartoons & Humorous Illustration
Over the years I've produced a variety of humorous illustrations and cartoons, in color, greyscale, and black and white, that have been used for corporate presentations, advertisements, signs, brochures, newsletters, magazines, and greeting cards. As with all the images I produce, I try to use an art style that matches the needs and expectations of my clients.
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Photography
While I do not consider myself a photographer by profession, I have occasionally called upon my skills in this area to shoot portrait, object, and setting shots, in studio and on location, for weddings, brochures, and other promotional materials I've designed.
Photo Art & Retouching
I have considerably more experience taking existing images (my own, stock, or supplied by the client) and manipulating and/or retouching them to produce a desired result. My experience as a traditional artist is very useful when doing this type of work.
The Babies & Lion Tail image (right) was one of several produced for a brochure that required creating 'new' children and poses by manipulating heads, arms and legs from the supplied images; in this image I also added the tail of a cartoon lion by drawing it in Photoshop.
The Truck & Plow image (below) provides an example of basic image clean-up: the image is close-cropped, cleaned up, and the background is removed; highlights and other enhancements are added where appropriate and desired by the client.
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Writing, Design, Illustration &
Production Assignments
I am always seeking new commissions and assignments. Please contact me to discuss the details.
Contact Kevin Davies
by email: kevin@peregrine-net.com
by phone: 416-461-9884.
or by mail:
Kevin Davies
40 Seymour Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4J 3T4, Canada
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