responsive: coffee shop north complete

I had originally intended to use one of the simplistic compositions but as I began to draw it out I found that it looked a little empty scaled up to A4 (the publication size). I added a few elements into the design and sent this to the art director. He was pretty relaxed about the design, and mentioned that many of the other illustrations were very simple so I toned it down a little again.

the first sketch, a little crowded

I decided to paint the image largely because that’s where I’m interested in my illustrations being. The piece was monochrome on request. I couldn’t help feel that the combination of washy painted shapes and black and white made it look like a poor man’s Eleni Kalorkoti, but tried to make it my own.

I’m not entirely happy with the final image, and have some hope that it might look better printed as I feel it does as a physical painting. Coffee Shop North were happy with it as a final image, which I suppose is the most important person to be happy in the exchange.

I wonder if keeping to the more simple compositions of before would have been more beneficial. I still feel unsure of the concept and whether I could have pushed it to be something more loose, but I’m also learning that yes, literal depictions with a focus on atmosphere aren’t all that bad and quite relevant to some projects!

Although it’s a painting it didn’t stop me taking advantage of Photoshop to create small variations. It was decided that the obscured faces were better, and I felt that although I found the composition felt more interesting that the final one was the most balanced. I also discovered that CMYK files don’t really like black.