So you probably saw the illustration I did for the front of the NATIONAL POST. While that illo was pretty awesome, it wasn't the first one I did for the story. Since they weren't used I'll show you the other illos I did that ended up not being exactly what the designer/art director were looking for. It happens sometimes, but very rarely do you end up with a bunch of art you really like. Everyone was happy with every version of what you see here but for some reason they just weren't working. That big eye at the top of this post was the first version. They ended up suggesting the image needed a more "High-tech, computery look" so I did this version.
I had a lot of fun playing with gradients. Stylistically I don't tend to use gradients that often in illustrator, I don't know why but I like the more flat shading look I usually use when working in illustrator. But again for whatever reason it didn't quite match the designer's vision. She wanted something with a little more Propaganda poster flavor to it. So I worked out these variations.
Everyone was happy with these but again something didn't quite line up with the vision the designer had, and since I was having fun exploring the idea we went with one more idea. Based on that final pair of blue eyes we decided to go with a more "Big Brother" idea and ended up with what you saw on the front of the paper and if you followed that link to the article.
I hope you enjoyed this look into the creative process of what goes into illustrating a story.
