Hands-‐on Illustrator
Portfolio
Project: Film Diorama ‘The Thing’
As part of a University project to create dioramas of famous ?ilm scenes, I was tasked with creating something to represent ‘The Thing’ (1982). As guts and gore are not my area of expertise, I decided to create a marionette of the Thing, made to look as adorable as possible.
Project: Christmas 2018 ‘The Nutcracker’
I set myself the challenge of designing and creating a series of Christmas decorations based on Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’. Each ornament was laser cut, hand painted, and featured a joint in the neck to make them ‘dance’ (based on laser cut puppets made at University). They were later accompanied by stamp shaped Christmas cards. Recipes, operas and national costumes were my strongest in?luences, but underpinning the design process was the desire to make something decadent and joyful.
Project: ‘Women in Film’ Marionettes Small and simple….?
My ?inal project at University is a series of character ?ilm posters of marionettes. I made 11 marionettes based on inspirational women from cinema, including Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, and Mako Mori. Upon completion they were photographed and made into ?ilm posters, but are fully functional and stand on their own merit.
Brooches based on some of these designs, along with new ones, were made to sell at ‘New Designers 2018’ in London. My original marionette design was made smaller and the joints simpli?ied to remove the need for nails. As a result, the only joint in the badge is in the neck allowing the badge to ‘dance’ whilst being worn. This feature proved to be a popular selling point.
All the badges made for ‘New Designers’ are created using the laser cutter, assembled individually, and hand painted. However there is potential for larger scale productions in the future using UV printing and other techniques.
Project: Howl’s Moving Castle Folio Society and House of Illustration competition
Every year, the Folio Society and House of Illustration host a competition to illustrate the next Folio Society book. 2019 was the year of Howl’s Moving Castle.
Using editorial technique, pencil drawings, and digital colouring, I created 3 illustrations to spear head each chapter. I wanted to create illustrations that would look good as a set but could stand on their own, set apart from each other by using bright colours and strong shadows to set the different moods. There is also some subtle ?lower language used for Sophie and the Witch of the Waste.
Project: Hotel Indigo ‘Lijiang Old Town’ Branch
For a competition that involved making art for a Hotel Indigo branch of our choice, I researched the main religion of the town and their myths. ‘The Descent of Man’ -‐ a creation myth about sound and breath transforming into a pair of eggs -‐ was intriguing, and so I interpreted it through art designed to be used as tall wall murals.
Project: 'Ginger' The Secret Life of a colour
Taking inspiration from the book 'The Secret Lives of Colour', I created a fake ?ilm poster about the origin of the colour ginger, and how it came to be associated with the Pre-‐Raphaelite Muse, Elizabeth Siddall. The story features suicide, poetry, and some maybe-‐justi?ied grave robbing.
The ?inal product is to the right, but sketches, progress scans, and elements compiled for the ?inal piece are featured on the next page.
Project: Covea Insurance ‘Real People, Real Purpose’
Whilst at ‘Covea Insurance’, I was tasked with creating a digital poster based around their new project ‘Real People, Real Purpose’, aimed at showing how employees are more than just their job description. I chose to research Disney designer Steve Thompson and demonstrated how he moonlights as a trapeze artist in a circus group.
Despite ‘Covea Insurance’ using photographs of their employees, I mimicked Thompson’s art style to draw him in an acrobatic pose -‐ both to link his job and his hobby together, and to work around the lack of photographs of him performing. Though a number of text alignments were played with, I decided it would be a shame to waste the strong vertical and horizontal lines that came with his pose.
Behind Disney’s Principal Designer is their high-‐‑ lying trapeze artist leading a double-‐‑life in a circus school!
This is Steve, the Disney Store’s Principal Designer
of 13 years, who draws Princesses and designs cute
products for a job he loves. More than likely if you
own a Disney christmas ornament, it’s one of his.
SSteve knows how important it is to express your
creativity in different ways than you usually would,
far away from your comfort zone. For him this is his
other passion -‐ trapeze! Artists aren’t particularly
known for their athleticism (and certainly Steve
claims he was never into sports as a child) but for
Steve it’s a way to push himself further and clear his
head so he can be inspihead so he can be inspired by real life. After 7 years
of performing with his Husband, he’s come a long
way from being a Circus Student -‐ but always keeps
in mind that he’s never done learning anything
in life.