More development (postcards)

After my last post I decided to look specifically for existing vector illustrations of the four people I chose to represent my cities, specifically work by Stan Chow and Noma Bar.

I wasn't expecting both artists to have made portraits of all of them, but I found a few:

• The first one is actually Noel Gallagher, not Liam, but it's an example of how features can be exaggerated and the people turned into easily identifiable caricatures.
• I love Chow's use of gradients in his work - it gives just a little bit of depth and complexity rather than symbolic flat colours.
• Kurt Cobain by Noma Bar I really love. Noma Bar is incredible at using objects and motifs incorporated into portraits to further represent who they are. For example, the music notes in the sunglasses, and in an earlier post, Amy Winehouse with facial features made up of a spoon of heroin and a lighter. This is an example of how simple can be really effective, and it's something I'd like to be able to do.

After trying to experiment with a more complex original idea for the portraits, I felt like simple could work a lot better. It would also be something new for me, as I like to draw details and line, rather than simple shape forms.

I made quite a few different versions of Liam Gallagher and Kurt Cobain, once I started looking at these two artists. I was inspired and influenced by their simplicity, as when I started the project having never used illustrator before, I think I was quite arrogant maybe about what I could achieve? Or was creating too much work, unnecessary work, especially when these simple portraits convey meaning just as well, maybe even better, than a very complex drawing.

Anyway, development of Liam:

So going from complex, to simpler and simpler still. The last one is my attempt at super simplicity, like Noma Bar, although I couldn't think of an appropriate associated object to incorporate, apart from the sunglasses, but I think all you need is the hair, as his was so iconic.

Development of Kurt:

Again, a similar process of complex to simple. After talking with people in the studio it was suggested that maybe the third one wasn't clear enough as to who it was, without any other signifier apart from the hair, so I made two other versions, one with a beard and one with Kurt's iconic sunglasses. I do think his face look too bare with nothing apart from the hair, and my favourite is probably the second one, as you can easily tell who it is. I like the sunglasses one but again couldn't think of a way to make use of them without copying Noma Bar.