New Work: The Player List
I was invited by illustrator Ryan T. Simpson to contribute to his new series, The Player List. I was presented a few player options and selected "The Big Fundamental," Tim Duncan, to illustrate. I picked up on classic Spurs colors and worked in lots of little technical details to support the concept.
I'm kind of a lazy sketcher. I work loosely to get the basic shapes and ideas in place, but I don't rework it a lot. Most of the refinement happens once I get to vectors.
I work on a big loose artboard at 100%, and work quickly in vector to get the big shapes primary structure for both the figure and the background elements. I wanted to create an intricate background knocked out of the silver that had lots of technical details including the coordinates for San Antonio and create an angled structure that was all at 21º (stuff that probably only I notice, but really enjoy working in). I wanted it to have a test print feel, with lots of interesting overlays that felt loose and organic on top of the rigid background elements. For this particular piece, I did a lot of additional texture and composition in Photoshop. Most of the colorful shapes were worked in at that point.
