ENYINNA EZEBUIRO

Developments

A freelance project based on creating an iconic illustration to an aspiring music artist, and owner of the start-up RBK Entertainment London franchise.

RBK is an upcoming label that looks to work closely with musical talent coming from disabled artists, and give them a greater platform to show themselves. As a disabled musician himself, my client considers his self to be a strong, fierce, diva-like character and so wanted a design bold enough to exclaim these credentials.

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The finished product had to be done just right, and stylized with sketch-like details yet be precise and particular for all of the information presented on it.

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There was not much room for freedom in this task, yet I had several gaps to fill in, in order to get the ideas that my client couldn't put together done properly.

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Several design drafts had to be re-worked but not after too long I produced an illustration that he was completely satisfied with.

Below I will briefly go present some of the development stages.  

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Draft 1:

Based on older illustrations previous designers had worked on, I had a very slight idea of the direction my client wanted to go with. 

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He briefed of a logo-esque styled illustration, that is simplistic yet had details coming from the strands in his cornrow hair, red sunglasses, a rope chain jewellery and a fur hooded jacket. These designs were produced on those initial details listed.

Draft 2:

Whilst he was pleased with the other developments, he was not entirely sure of the likeness the character had to himself, and he wanted the facial structure to appear sleeker. He also wanted to try out a different artstyle with a more cartoon yet detailed appearance.

Also adding some text to the jacket along with to the chain, and slight red colour to the hair. So here is what I came up with.

Draft 3:

Saying that he preferred the first composition I reverted back to the previous design, looking to redraft it.

I decided to sketch the illustration out first to have a newer basis to follow, rather than referring to previous artist's work.

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I mainly looked to change his face yet again, and also added further text that he now wished to be implemented to the jacket design. The colour on the sunglasses was also inverted to his desires too.

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After drafting it in Adobe Illustrator again, I took it onto Adobe Photoshop to add effects and improve the sketch-like black & white artstyle he later requested to finish.

Draft 4:

The designs were moving in the right direction, however many changes still were required. He wanted his hair to keep the red streaks on it, and also have the red colour return to his sunglasses as well. The fur hood on the coat would also return to these designs, but with added detail.

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As a new addition my client also wished to incorporate a camoflage print onto the jacket, which I experimented with yet couldn't get completely right. It needed to easily visible underneath the writing on the jacket as well, which was yet the case.

Draft 5:

Pleased with how things were looking I just had to finish up and finalise the design.

A couple big changes needed to be made however, and that consisted of making the braids thicker and more detailed. This becoming one of the more time-comsuming tasks to digitally add the detail to each strand and braid. He also wanted detail on the baby-hairs within the hairline, to which I added long and curly strokes to give the effect.

Finally I lightened the camoflage on the jacket, and added the rest of the text onto it in the style that he wished. And the design was complete.