Ink To Vector

Before starting my final major project I decided to go back to producing my work in vector form as I felt this was an area I was more confident in and I wanted to produce work at a much higher degree of professionalism. I guess there was a big fear that I would finish my 3rd year with work I was really unhappy with because I still had a lot to learn with pen and ink. Don't get me wrong I love pen and ink, but I’m such a perfectionist and despite my best efforts I could never achieve the perfect line work I was striving for. I would spend long periods of time trying to get everything just right and then scan it in only to find it just didn’t look the same as it did on paper. Creating artwork in ink is most definitely a skill that takes years of practise and a high degree of experimentation to perfect and is not for someone with sausage fingers like me. However working in black and white has taught me a lot about getting the right balance and tone in my work, which was previously lacking. I also became fascinated with cross hatching techniques, and studied the work of illustrators like Tom Gauld, Matthieu Bessudo (McBess) and Sir John Tenniel (Alice in Wonderland). The styles of these three illustrators are very different in their approach but they all have an affinity with the cross hatch and are masters of their craft. I too fell in love with this way of working but decided to simplify my cross hatching down to enable me to produce my work a little quicker. I first started to experiment in this way last year on the Wellspring project, but it wasn’t until I did the illustration for Little White Lies that I really started to see some improvement in my work and found a new way to use cross hatching with my vector drawn illustrations. Since then I feel much more confident in my style and am actually really happy with the work I am now producing.

Tom Gauld - Beast

McBess - Title Unknown

John Tenniel - The Jabberwocky