Cheltenham Illustration Awards

As part of my work experience I created a piece of work and entered it into the Cheltenham Illustration Awards competition 2015.

The theme was 'Tales of the City' so I started by collating drawings and information from different places to get an overall idea of a city, the buildings, people and type of place that a city is and the atmosphere it has.

I started a small journal sketchbook when I was in Antwerp and since then have done drawings around Cheltenham of places such as Birmingham whilst travelling by train and also in Manchester, these drawings would provide an environment to set my narrative in.

My idea for 'Tales of the City' I wanted to focus on the fact that the cities are so busy and full of people and how these people are connected. 

When we dream the strangers and side characters that aren't people we recognise are actually real people who we have met. Our subconscious mind cannot construct new faces so instead it takes them from our memories, so strangers who you see on your commute, someone you bumped into just once or who served you in a shop could feature in your dreams.

I'm not sure where I learnt this fact but I like that there are ways people are connected even if they don't fully realise it, so I wanted to use this theme for my competition piece. 

My narrative would be simple, a business woman on her daily commute recognises a stranger and turns as if to speak to them, she then wonders why she recognises them and tries to recall some fragments of a dream she had. She then shrugs off the fact that the dream was where she and this woman 'met' as it does not affect her and then gets on with her day. But someone else recognises her the same way.

After I had this idea I tried some multiple image compositions to see how this would fit together, I knew I wanted the action of the head turn to be shown horizontaly and that the remembering of the dream would take place in the centre. I had the dream sequence flowing in my first composition but later decided on a more circular format as it would help to centre her thoughts and shpow them as internal around her.

Full drawn composition

I got the main figures and action drawn out in detail which I would then refine in the tracing process and knew I would want the buildings to act as a sort of border,to set the scene but not interfere with the narrative.

Tracing up

As always, although the tracing process is laborious I find it is a good way to refine my line work and take only the necessary details from the pencil version to the final piece.

Penning and inking

I used variable line thickness on the figures to add details and to make them stand out from the background. I like the way the circular format has worked on the central image and think it fits nicely within the city borders.

I wasn't sure how best to illustrate the buildings so used my graphic novel 'Dark Satanic Mills' by Marcus & Julian Sedgwick for reference. I liked the strong contrast of black and white of the illustration style and replicated this using the inkiness of my Pentel brush pen. This allowed me to create striking buildings with just the right amount of detail. I think it helps to add a sense of distance too, pushing the surroundings back from the main parts of the illustration.

I added other details such as people in crowds using a fine liner and a loose sketchy style so they would become more of the background compared to the main figures.

At this stage I considered adding a colour wash over the entirety of my illustration but decided to just use spot colour first and see what it would look like.I used watercolour and chose a pale blue letting darker tones mingle to create a dream like vague effect which would help to encapture the qualities of the dream sequence.

Washes added and spot colouring

I didn't want the events of the dream to be too clear as that is what the character herself is trying to piece together but I tried to make the face of the woman stand out in the central sections of the circle so she could be recognised.

After the colour wash I used grey at various tones to add dimension and movement to my figures. I enjoy using greyscale washes and use it to add character and detail it is a technique I am comfortable with and normally match it with minimal line work.

However I felt that the ink wash made the strong black of the buildings look at odds with the rest of the illustration so added a bit of wash to this also.

Submitting my entry

After I had completed my illustration I scanned it in using the A3 studio scanner as the image was A3, then I used Photoshop Elements Editor on my laptop and cleaned up the image using my graphics tablet. When my image was ready I submitted it using WeTransfer following the instructions that were on the Illustration Awards page.

Final entry piece