Tuesday 24 September 2013

CHRONOS Femme in print

CHRONOS small

Received my copy of CHRONOS Femme from Japan today!
Click here to read more about this project.

Friday 20 September 2013

Flyer for SUNDOWN ART / Not Very Ladylike

SUNDOWN september 2013 150 dpi

Knocked up this flyer this week for the fine folks at SUNDOWN arts - in their own words "a diverse arts event playing host to live music, spoken word, comedy, short films, DJ’s and any other performance art. It is based in Southend-on-sea but now curates events in London and throughout the UK, including many festivals."

From the organiser, about this particular event: "Not Very Ladylike features emerging theatre company Old Trunk, with one of their witty, unique plays/sketches. There is also the comedy poet Liz Bentley whose material is pretty edgy. Then the performance artist Caroline Smith, who also does some unique, raw material.
So the concept is an all-female cast with edgy, unique material that pushes the envelope a little.
I like the look of fifties style women from those forties and fifties style adverts, where women were supposed to be prim and like a lady but maybe give the flyer a punk rock feel to it. Or a pop art feel."

Inspiration:

16e42d978f408518e02c025de4b40081

BettiePage2

Crossroads-Profil_4

tumblr_m7iyv5Wyjm1qa70eyo1_500

Monday 9 September 2013

SHOP Italy / cover illustration

SHOP ITALY final

This is the 2nd image of three that I have created for the international SHOP series, published by Global Blue. This one was for their Italy issue. The concept was old school glamour - I researched images of Veronica Lake and Grace Kelly, and 1940s fashion imagery. Finally I found a striking image of a 1940s model wearing a dress that really accentuated her small frame. I sketched it out, and then redrew the image several times, adjusting the hair and dress to exaggerate the proportions.

Scroll down to see the process, sketches, and reference imagery...

Click here to read an interview I did with Global Blue, about making the image.

DEVELOPMENT OF FINAL IMAGE...

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

INITIAL SKETCHES...

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

SHOP ITALY sketch

INSPIRATION & REFERENCES

SHOP ITALY reference

SHOP ITALY reference

SHOP ITALY reference

CHRONOS Femme / 6 illustrations

chronos

I recently completed this assignment for Chronos FEMME in Japan.
Chronos Femme is a watch and jewellery magazine for ladies which is published bimonthly. It is a sister magazine of Chronos Japan, a mechanical watch magazine for men cooperated with Chronos Germany. Chronos FEMME is given to the customers interested in luxury watches and jewelry at official watch shops and department stores in Japan.
The assignment was to draw six ladies wearing one brand watch each, and the brands featured were Rolex, Roger Dubuis, Chaumet, Hermes, Hublot and Omega.

Scroll down to see the images, sketches, and reference images...

CHAUMET

CHAUMETfinal

sketch & reference images:

CHAUMET SKETCH

CHAUMET

HERMES

HERMES final

sketch & reference images:

HERMES SKETCH

No.-21-Pre-Autumn-Winter-2013-2014-Collection-For-Women-27

HUBLOT

HUBLOT final

sketch & reference images:

HUBLOT

rejected 1st concept sketch:

HUBLOT SKETCH

OMEGA

OMEGAfinal

sketches & reference images:

OMEGA SKETCH

LOOK-4_1280x1920

ROGER DUBUIS

ROGERDUBUISfinal

sketches & reference images:

ROGER DUDUIS 3rd sketch

roger dubuis_ISA0272.450x675

ROLEX

ROLEXfinal

sketch & reference images:

ROLEX SKETCH

Rolex_reference_No.1

SHAMBALA map / making of / inspiration / etc

SHAMBALA MAP final USE THIS small

This is a map I created over the months leading up to this years ever magical, ever wonderful, Shambala festival.
The map was NOT intended for navigating around the site - it was more intended as a decorative, fun, promotional illustration of all the fantastic things that Shambala has to offer. The map however was printed in the first page of the festival programme - and this probably led to quite a few people trying to use it to find their way around, and probably getting very lost - not many things were in the right spot! (I was basically just given a list of venues to include, and then more or less place them wherever I wanted.)
But then again, maybe that was the idea - the best times at festivals are often the ones where you end up somewhere you never expected to find...
It was LONG and challenging process making the map, but it was also a lot of fun, and extremely satisying when I finally finished and got to see and share the end result.
ps. Where's Wally tip: There's a secret portrait of me and my boy hidden in the map - can you spot us?

If you would like to order a print of the map, you can do so at my Etsy shop, by clicking here.

SHAMBALA MAP print

If you would like to order a print at a custom made size (it could be as big or small as you like), email me at annahiggie@gmail.com

Look closer...

shambala map vignette 1
shambala map vignette 2

shambala map vignette 3

shambala map vignette 4

WORK IN PROGRESS ON THE FINAL:

MAP shambala

Basically, I drew every element separately, and then knitted it all together and added colour in Photoshopo. This meant I could move everything around and play with different colours, sizes, and compositions along the way.
I felt that if I'd tried to do everything on one piece of paper, it would have been a lot harder to change things, and it would also have been very difficult for me to scan well. Here are some examples of individual elements that eventually all got married all together into one big final piece:

puppet show

characters 11

characters 13

surplus supper club

characters 12

INITIAL SKETCHES

3rd sketch (last one before going to final image):

SHAMBALA MAP SKETCH 3

2nd Sketch:

SHAMBALA MAP 2nd draft

Initial 1st sketch:

SHAMBALA MAP 1st SKETCH

INSPIRATION!!!

Here are some other maps made for festivals that I had a look at when researching the map and figuring out how the hell I was going to tackle this project (having never made a map before in my life - quite a daunting task at first):

Glastonbury by day and night:

glastonbury day map
glastonbury night map

This years Green Man map (my personal fave, I love this aesthetic):

green man map

Bestival:

map inspiration 6

The Southbank Center Festival of the World:

map inspiration 9

OTHER MAPS I LIKE:

Here's a small selection of other maps I looked at and liked when researching for the map:

map inspiration 11
map inspiration 12

map inspiration 13

INSPIRATION FROM OTHER ARTISTS...

The incredible Marc Boutavant, one of my favourite illustrators, was a big inspiration when it came to creating the characters in the map, which is something I haven't done very much before.
I was also looking at characters created by Moomins creator Tove Jansson (and the treehouse - see below - is pretty much copied from a treehouse in one of my all time favourite books, Who Will Comfort Toffle - a must have for children of all ages, and adults too)
A lot of inspiration in terms of general composition and character design also came from fellow Jamaica Street superstar illustrator Bjorn Rune-Lie (who was a big inspiration when it came to drawing the stylised trees in the forest as well, I must admit):

marc boutavant - inspiration for characters
image
treehouse inspiration
trees
9 am at Waterloo station