Happy New Year

Just before we wave goodbye to 2011, I thought I would post a couple of illustrations I have worked on over the Christmas break.

They aren't anything amazing, it is just some character design work I was doing in between that lull of Christmas and the New Year.

You will notice that I have created two different executions for the same concept, with the idea of the man taking his head off. It is a bit of a warped idea that I have had knocking around in my head for quite some time. Though when it came to drawing it, I wasn't sure which style I wanted to do it in and so produced it in both.

As always, these illustrations will be available to purchase from iStock.

With that, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for reading my mindless rambles and to wish you a Happy New Year and a successful 2012.

All designs and concepts are strictly © Copyright Dan Bailey.

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 24

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 23

Dribbble

After about a year of waiting, this week I got the ultimate Christmas present when I received my invite to be a player and upload my work on to Dribbble.

For those who don't know, Dribbble is a show and tell site for designers where you can upload snapshots of your work for the world to see. You can register to view the other designers work whenever you wish, but it isn't until you receive an invite from another 'player' that can you start uploading your own work.

I first found out about Dribbble about a year ago, when a friend mentioned the site as something I could be interested in. I looked into it and was instantly in awe of all the amazing talent on there and I knew it was something I wanted to get involved with.

It took me quite a few months to get my invite, but even without it I found the site simply amazing and such an inspiring resource.

You can see my Dribbble home page here.

For me this rounds off a brilliant year. I haven't been able to do as much drawing as I would have liked, but this is due to me being kept busy with my freelance design, which is obviously a great situation to be in.

I have been fortunate to have worked with some outstanding agencies on some very prestigious brands this year, including the biggest home entertainment launch of all time in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I have also been fortunate enough to spend a few weeks in the US (another dream that came true for me), where I met and saw some incredible things and made some fantastic new friends.

I am hoping that 2012 continues in this vein and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my work, it really means a lot to me.

As a final present to you all, below are a couple of illustrations I have finished his week.

 

 

 

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 22

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 21

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 20

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 19

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 18

Travel disruption...

I have recently been working on this illustration and thought rather then just uploading the final image, I would upload my entire process.

The illustration itself is based on every commuters nightmare… Having to stand near the guy who has his music blaring out so loud that your brain begins to throb. It will be available to purchase from iStock in the next few weeks and so if you are interested in it, let me know and I will forward on a link.

The first thing I normally do when drawing, is to roughly visualise what I want the illustration/composition to be.

From that I start thinking about the characters I want involved within the illustration.

Once I am happy with the characters and composition, I then create the final sketch which I scan and trace over in Illustrator.

I always try to add as much detail as possible, especially to the clothes, as I feel it gives more personality to the characters.

I know that isn’t the most exciting process of working, but I wanted to share it so that you can see the journey my illustrations go on, from the beginning of their life as a simple doodle, to the completed image.

 

 

 

 

 

All designs and concepts are strictly copyright © Dan Bailey 2011. 

Please do not use any of this material without first seeking my permission.

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 17

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 16

 

If anyone has ever had a pet eat the tinsel off of their tree, then they will know exactly where I am coming from with this :)

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 15

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 14

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 13

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 12

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 11

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 9

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 8

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 7

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 6

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 5

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 4

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 3

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 2

Doodle Advent Calendar – Day 1

Christmas Advent Doodle Calendar

Anyone who knows me, knows what a sucker I am for Christmas.

For me, it is the best time of the year bar none. I simply love the joy it generates and the way it can bring people together.

Last year I decided that I wanted to inject some Christmas spirit into the lives of the people who follow me on Twitter and so I created an Advent Doodle Calendar.

What is that I hear you cry?

Well, in a nutshell, I simply uploaded a new Christmas-based doodle everyday to my Twitter account from 1st December, up until Christmas Eve for people to see.

It isn’t much, but it is a small way of saying thank you to the amazing people (and spambots) who follow me, as well as spreading that little bit of Christmas cheer.

You can either follow me on Twitter to see the posts, or you can see them daily here.

It's the simple things in life...

I have recently been working on a few different characters visuals for a client who was keen to explore the ways in which we could simplify my designs in order to give their finished project a cleaner look.

The first route I was requested to take was to work towards my new style I have been developing. This look gives the character a lot more emotion and can be more striking and impactful compared to my other style.

The other option was a much simpler feel, which was strictly black and white and with real minimal detail.

The results are below.

 

I'm still alive...I promise!

After what has seemed an eternity since I last posted anything on here, I have come prepared with a cluster of posts to make up for my negligence.

In my defence though, I wasn’t ignoring you all, I have just been kept very busy with my main occupation as a freelance designer. As well as that, I have also been working on some illustration projects which I didn’t want to publish until they had been signed off and launched.

One of the projects I have been working on was some character design for a fantastic guy in the US called Luke Knowles.

I first started working with Luke a few years ago when he saw my work on the stock site iStock and approached me about creating a character for one of his Coupon Discount websites that he runs. Since then we have worked together designing numerous characters for the sites, creating a whole family for his brand.

Last month Luke came to me asking for a new character to be designed for his new venture into the world of discounted printer ink. The brief was pretty open, as his only specifications was for the character to be a little bit nerdy looking, to have the printing process colours (CMYK) clearly visible on the character and for him to have a jetpack.

Below are the original sketches that I produced. I created 4 different designs to begin with and then once the character was selected, we then looked at developing him.

He did take on a costume change as we progressed with the project and you can see the final design at the bottom of the post.

 

All designs and concepts are strictly © Copyright Dan Bailey 2011.