New - Portrait Illustrations

Back again! I've made a promise to myself that I'll definitely keep on top of my blogging and illustrating this year, so expect to see a lot more of me!

These two illustrations, showing sales managers stood in front of important local landmarks, were produced for a London Estate Agents last spring. They were used on flyers and in shop windows to help advertise the company in the local area. 

I love likeness commissions so this was a bit of a dream job! (I also really enjoyed the building side to this brief). What do you think?

I'll be back soon with some new work. And as I haven't said it already, I hope you're having a fantastic start to the year!

New Illustrations - Horses & Boats!

I'm very late to the party but... Happy New Year you wonderful lot!

I'm finally getting around to sharing these illustrations I finished for an advertising campaign early last year. The two illustrations were completely out of my comfort zone (no detailed fashion or portraits in sight!) and took many painstaking and stressful hours of work. I absolutely loved the challenge though. I definitely gained a lot from the experience and can proudly say the prospect of drawing crowds no longer fills me with fear - I had no idea where to start and when I finally realised how I could make it work, the feeling was amazing (such relief!)

The client was a London Estate Agents who, using happenings in the property market, predicted that March (last year) would be the prime time to put a house on the market. They wanted to use large-scale, famous events in March (Cheltenham Races & The Boat Race) to help steer their campaign. The first event was Cheltenham Race Festival, for which a tagline "put your house on the market, it'll be a one horse race..." was to be used.

It was great to have the opportunity to work on such an unusual (for me anyway!) brief. 

I had quite a lot of freedom in the initial stages, drawing up a number of roughs and working with the in-house designer to finalise a rough to take to colour. Even the colour took me away from the illustration work I've become accustom to. The hardest part for me was being unable to use the detail I work into my portraits with the crowd. It would have been completely unfeasible so this meant forcing myself to work almost in the opposite way, using as little detail as possible but, at the same time, maintaining my own personal style.

(Below are some of the rough workings I drew out before we decided upon the final imagery).

The second poster was for The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Again with this piece, I needed the context to be true to life (both of these events take place at the same places every year so needed to be somewhat recognisable). This meant researching the course and trying to produce imagery that wasn't going to be a million miles away from what we would see in person. 

I loved illustrating the houses and incorporating texture - I think that was definitely my favourite part of this illustration. It was the boat and the crowd again that I found the hardest to get my head around.

I was really happy with the way both the illustrations turned out - I hope you like them too! Tomorrow I will be sharing two portrait illustrations I completed for the same company so check back to see them. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post - I hope you like what you see, but please let me know what you think...

Etsy - Abby's Illustrations

Hello everybody! Sorry I've been a little quiet for a while, I'm busy working on new projects which I should be able to share with you soon (I get very impatient waiting for illustrations to go live!)

I just wanted to let you know that I've reopened my Etsy shop, stocked with a number of custom portrait and pet portrait commission options. Perfect birthday, Father's Day, everyday or (for the extremely well prepared) Christmas presents! If you are interested and have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

I'll be back soon with more updates! I hope you're all enjoying this (finally) sunny weather!

Abby x

Observer Review: Books of the Year 2012 illustration

So, as many of you may have seen on twitter, last week I was commissioned by The Observer to create an illustration that would accompany a round up of the best books of 2012. You can read the article online here. When my agent, Kelly (who I cannot thank enough for making my dreams come true) rang me to tell me about the commission, I was in complete shock. Doing an illustration for a big national newspaper like this has been a dream for a while. The deadline was incredibly tight, but I proved to myself that i can do it. I love illustrating so much!

I loved the brief as well - they asked for a young woman reading in a winter scene. When they suggested she should be wearing a hat, scarf and winter coat I was even more excited. They also said they wanted it to be cold and not too girly. I loved the opportunity to experiment a bit with background elements, something I usually steer clear of, and really challenge myself. I hope you like the final piece. I don't think I've ever been more proud of an illustration. I also want to say a massive thank you to everyone for all your lovely comments, it means so much to me. So here it is!

Just thought I would share a couple of the roughs with you. After sending the first rough, the art director asked that I added some books amongst the trees on the left, just to add a little more interest in the corner. I really love how this addition worked out!

I sometimes worry that I sound like I'm showing off, but honestly, I never thought I would work on anything as wonderful as this, I feel so humbled by the whole thing and am so thankful for everybody who supported me through my career so far, you're incredible. It was an incredibly special moment when I opened the paper and saw my work.

Loved seeing my illustration as a thumbnail on the front page of The Observer Online too! Something I never thought I would see.

And finally, I wanted to share some more detialed pictures of the illustration. Thank you again to Kelly and those at the The Observer for commissioning me!