Dog Portraits
Naturally, my enthusiasm for dogs has led me to offer pet portrait illustrations. Using a photo of the canines, I select colours with intention, pulling inspiration from the natural hues of their fur, eyes, or collar. I also add a background pattern and imagery specific to each dog. For example, Tennyson has a heart-shaped colouration on her head, so I added shading and a pattern to emphasize it.
Inspirational Quote Illustration
Spec Work
This illustration incorporates the recipient's favourite animal and one of their go-to phrases. Using Adobe Illustrator, I traced a photo of a blue whale and embellished it stylistically with a customized brush tool. I selected the typeface Ice Cream because its swooping embellishments allude to the motion of waves, and its whimsy reflects captures the message. When illustrating on a vector-based software like Adobe, it is difficult to achieve an "organic" look that hand-drawing or raster-based software allows. To achieve the variation in strokes, I customized the brush tool on Illustrator to be more randomized in size and orientation. I selected the colour palette to consist of mostly oceanic, cool colours, but added a hint of orange for some warmth and joy.
Vintage National Park Postcard
Spec Work
Inspired by mid-century travel advertisements, I designed this gift for a nature-lover. I used a classic layout and typeface (Futura) and traced a photo of a canoe, then embellished with lilies. The turtle is an Eastern Painted Turtle, native to Ontario.