spectre journal — BLOG

I want to talk about how I created this illustration for the new issue of Spectre Journal; let’s jump right into it!

1 / It’s important to first know the specs. In this case it was a 8 x 10” full page illustration (300dpi, CMYK) with 0.125” bleed. The article talks about how the mafia and politicians oppressed and exploited waterfront workers, longshoremen, in 1930s Brooklyn. I had two weeks to finish the illustration. The art director was open to my ideas; I read the article a few times and highlighted some keys words and phrases in order to evoke some fitting imagery in my mind. I also collected many references photos of the subject matter and people mentioned in the article; I even watched some documentaries to get to know the mafioso (some of them are quite famous) and what life was life for longshoremen at the time.

2 / I sent two thumbnails to the art director. One was more detailed and narrative (1), showing the key “players” and events that the article deals with. The second was more metaphorical (2), showing the weight of exploitation “carried” by the worker. The art director went with the first idea (which is the one I also preferred), but asked if I could take out the three portraits in the centre of the image, and replace it with something less figurative, for example the scenery of the Brooklyn waterfront. This was a huge challenge for me, as suddenly, I was left with a big hole in my composition! But I agreed that the first draft was too busy, and I needed to challenge myself to bring more negative space and balance into the illustration (that this is something I need to work on in general).

3 / Amending the composition: I tried two different things here. The first was to incorporate the waterfront and a bit of the Brooklyn bridge. I liked how it looked in the thumbnail (see: composited thumbnail), but somehow, when it came to drawing the final, it looked too stiff, too technical, which didn’t fit into the organic flow of the rest of the illustration. The second idea was to incorporate only the waterfront, and have the steam flowing out from the cargo ship mirrored as an abstract shape in right hand portion of the image (see: final drawing). In both cases, I drew the original parts of the first draft, and the “new parts” separately, then composited them in Photoshop (it’s helpful to work with a light tablet here). The figures in the bottom left were also composited, in part, because I ended moving them up, and an extension of their bodies needed to be attached.

4 / 5 / Final drawing: this was simply a matter of tracing over the composited thumbnail and all the amendments I had made, enlarged to the correct size. For the pose in the top left corner of the illustration, I had two friends pose as a reference for me. At the end, I chose to forgo the bridge, and the AD approved my final drawing.

6 / Final texture and colour: for texture, I used some marks I’ve made with different media (charcoal, watercolour, graphite) that I saved in a folder a while back. Not all, just a few! Through some serendipity while screen printing throughout the week, I discovered that the ink washed out from my screens left some pretty interesting ink splotches in the bottom of the tub; I photographed and used this for the water in my illustration (you can already see it in the “final drawing” above). I scrubbed the tub clean afterwards, of course!

I decided this year that I wanted to start incorporating more texture into my illustrations in order to add visual interest without spending too much time drawing detail by hand. For colour, I decided right from the beginning that I wanted to work with a limited palette: blue, grey, and some sepia and brown tones. I also knew that I wanted to have some elements in the image that were not lined — like some of the smoke and the “crowd” in the bottom right corner. This, again, for balance and visual interest. After shading, I added a layer of halftone to some parts of the illustration — it’s something I’ve been doing for a while now which I think adds a distinctive look to my work ;)

7 / The AD was happy with the result at the end, but just wanted to desaturate the blue a bit in order to give the illustration more of a “noir” feel. Here’s the final spread, courtesy of AD Gabe Berlin:

The issue is available here and the article can be read (via subscription) here.

I’ve recently felt inspired to do more sketching. To capture the energy around me, and to keep drawing, even if it turns out bad. I haven’t felt that way in a long time. Perhaps it’s a summer thing. Overall, I’m prioritising mood over quality, though it’s also nice if the sketch turns out good at the end.

I’m also working on this piece that I’m just calling “hot pot” for now. I have a thumbnail composition already, and my plan of attack is to do studies of the individual aspects of the image before hashing out the final layout. Oh, and I’m experimenting with dip pens + water colour, and I really like it so far! My favourite part is that you can draw kind of crappy and this medium will make it look intentional lol.

In general I’m going for a more relaxed, imaginative and playful approach with this piece. I don’t want to always have to rely on reference images, and to check if every single detail is correct (my normal mode). It’s just so exhausting and really takes out all the fun. It’s hard to work alone because all I hear in my mind are those critical, perfectionist thoughts. I realised that I am a lot more easy going when I have someone to talk to while working. Just like in my personal life, I wish that in my working life, I had more of a balance between working alone and working with people around me.

In the mean time, my strategy is to be mindful – to notice when I have those extremely self critical thoughts, and then to let them go. It also helps to have relaxing music while working, here’s my drawing playlist in case you’re curious!

BTW, you’ve seen this already, but here’s the printed version of the feature illustration I did for Spectre Journal Issue 3! AD: Gabe Berlin, he was awesome to work with!

Finally, I signed a contract for another project with the Ban Ki-moon Centre in Austria. Here was the first project, in case you missed it. I’ll be starting next month, so I’ll keep you updated!