Communication in the 21st Century…

I have just finished working on this illustration for my iStock portfolio. It will be available to purchase as a Royalty-Free image within the next couple of days.

I have been meaning to work on this illustration for a while, as the way technology has evolved and how the older generation try to keep up with it, is something that has intrigued me of late.

Below are the original sketches and a closer look at the final image. As you can see from the sketch, the image on the screen ended up changing quite dramatically. Also, if you are a little freaked out by the characters without any pupils in their eyes, I must apologise. I do tend to not draw them in. I have no idea whether it is laziness or not, but if I know I am going to creating a digital illustration I just don’t do it.

If you would like to see more of my work on a regular basis, check out my main site www.danbaileyonline.co.uk. I have a tendency to update that one a little more frequently then this one. Thanks for dropping by.

Robot character design

I was recently approached about creating a character for a client that I have worked with before on a few other projects.

My client wanted a robot created to join the family of characters they already have representing the numerous money saving websites they run.

Each site represents a different sector which ranges from discounted vouchers to magazine subscription offers.

I originally set out creating 4-5 different character designs. From here we whittled it down to two which we then ended up merging, as both had favourable features.

The sketches of some of the development work are below.

 

From here the client chose their favoured design and after making a few additional amends, including adding the mouth and dollar sign on the chest plate, I began the final poses. From a personal point of view I was against adding the mouth as I feel the characters emotions can be equally reflected through their eyes and body posture, but saying that I was really happy with the way he turned out.

 

After the sketches were signed off, I began the final vector illustrations which you can see below.

The beginning of forever...

About 18 months ago I set out to make my then girlfriend (now wife), a really special Valentine’s Day present.

We hadn’t been going out for long, but like a true romantic I wanted to give her something which offered a little more sentiment then a box of chocolates.

I am not the most talented guy in the world and so the chances of me writing a song or crafting a beautiful table with my own bear hands were slim and so I did the only thing I really now how to… Draw.

I decided to make a comic charting our lives at different points, concluding with the day we met.

The reason I decided on this was because the way in which myself and Sharon met so easily may not have happened. We have both lived very different lives and we nearly didn’t encounter each other after I changed my mind about not going to the friends Birthday meal I met her at.

I originally drew and inked the comic, but this year I decided to create a digital vector version of it so that we could show it at our wedding reception. I must admit creating it as a vector file proved to be a real time consuming project, but I am pleased I pursed it.

It also gave me the opportunity to update it, detailing our engagement.

I was a a little concerned you wouldn’t be able to understand the concept as easily online as you would with the physical comic, but in case you can’t, the top panel represents Sharon’s journey through life and the bottom mine.

I hope you enjoy it…

Our Mexican Dream

So in this last week I achieved something I never thought I would… I got married.

Up until two years ago I was a bit (a lot) of a workaholic. I became a freelance designer & illustrator in 2007 and since then I was very focused on my career and left no real time for my personal life. That was until a chance meeting with someone who changed not only my life, but also my view of it.

To cut a long story short, we got engaged last year and then on 11th August 2012 we tied the knot in Cancun, Mexico.

We were married in the beautiful resort of Excellence Playa Mujeres and below are just a few of the photos that I took in our time there.

My photography is just something I really enjoy doing. I am not an expert by a long shot (as you can see), but it is something I want to improve and develop.

I haven’t included any of my wedding shots, as I am sure you have better things to do then look at photos of me.

Sadly there aren’t any shots of the ‘real’ Mexico. We were only out there for the week to get married and had a lot to sort out before the wedding and so stayed in the resort for the time we were there. We had hoped to look around Mexico, but unfortunately the day we had planned to do the tourist thing was the one day the coach forgot to do its pick up from the resort… But that is another story.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social class characters

I have been working on a commission lately involving some character design based around different social classes.

Earlier this year I drew 44 different people ranging in age and race for the same client, luckily this time there were just 11 to contend with.

This style is a little different from my normal work, but after producing so many characters in this way I am beginning to feel a more comfortable with it.


Below are just a few of the 11 I created. There will be more of these characters being created in the coming months and so I will post those as soon as they are done.

Crash Test Tortoise

Kevin the Rabbit

I have had this image up on my personal website for a while now, but I thought I would post it here just in case you've not stumbled across it yet.

Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground lately as I have had a really busy few months doing adult things, like organising my wedding and being involved in a lot of big projects.

The next couple of weeks will be pretty hectic for me, but after that I am looking forward to showing some more work on here, so stay tuned folks.

So long Mickey...

After working for Disney for around ten years, my fiancée has taken a big step by leaving the company to fulfil her dreams of being a freelance illustrator.

To mark this special occasion I made her this delightful card.

She absolutely oozes talent and I know this will be the best decision she has ever made. You can check out her work at www.sharonlangdon.co.uk

Foxy...

Please do not use this or any of my other work without my permission.
All designs and concepts are strictly copyright © Dan Bailey 2012.

Casey Jones

The boy with the pig balloon

 

This image is available to purchase from my iStock royalty free collection.

© Dan Bailey 2012. 

Pirate Riddle

Recently I was approached about illustrating a riddle which was to go into the quiz section of a leading accountancy magazine.

The riddle was pirate themed and went as follows:

A pirate ship was anchored at Smuggler’s Cove with its rope ladder hanging off the port side into the water. The ladder’s rungs were each spaced one-foot apart, five rungs were above water level. With the tide coming in from the starboard side at a rate of six inches an hour how many rungs were still visible four hours later at high tide?

Personally I feel my strengths lie in character design and so for me it was crucial to try and squeeze in as many as possible, whilst not distracting you from the key point of the riddle.

I was really pleased with the final outcome and hope that this will be a good launchpad for future magazine commissions.

 

Scamps

Recently I have been fortunate enough to do a lot of scamping in the design projects I have been involved in.

For those of you that don't know, scamps are basically just very quickly drawn visuals of an idea that you want to pitch to a client.

Over the years I have done less and less of these, as generally (from a personal point of view), the client prefers to see digital visuals. I believe they feel it gives them a much greater idea of what their final product would look like.

If budgets are tight it can be a good way to portray your idea without having to go into the effort and cost of creating an artworked visual.

Recently I have been fortunate enough to create scamps for pitches to Coke and Warner Bros, but unfortunately I don't have any scans of those, though I do have some I was working on last week which was based around a tennis publication.

 

Gingerbread Ted

 

© Copyright Dan Bailey 2012

Please do not attempt to use this, or another other piece of my work without first getting my consent