Illustration

Digital Art

Four pieces of personal illustration across two hands — loose digital painting and clean vector portraits.

Role: Illustrator
Timeline: 2018
Stack: Digital painting
Vector
Character design

A collection of personal illustration work.

Illustration is where I practise the things that later show up in interface and brand work: reducing a subject to the few shapes that make it recognisable, choosing a limited palette, and knowing when to stop rendering.

Four pieces, four approaches

Painted illustration of a swordsman in red robes — Painterly — loose brushwork, a single dark backdrop to push the red figure forward.

Illustrated portrait of a young man thinking — Line and cel shading — clean outlines, flat shadows, hand-lettered name.

Vector portrait in an orange jacket on an orange background — Vector portrait — a near-monochrome orange palette with one glowing circle for depth.

Flat cartoon character with arms crossed — Flat character — big head, simple shapes, a mascot-style figure.

01
Silhouette first
Each piece starts from a pose that reads in solid black — if the silhouette works, the details are easy.
02
Limit the palette
One dominant hue per piece (red, green, orange, blue) keeps the image calm and the subject clear.
03
Match finish to purpose
Painting for a mood, vector for portraits that need to scale, flat shapes for a character that has to work small.

Original sheets