Exercise: Abstract illustration

After I’ve checked the list, I realized it’s been a long time I’ve heard the hot rhythms of Spanish guitar. So I’ve chosen to make an abstract illustration for the music of The Gypsy Kings.

It happens for example when you talk on the phone, your hand starts to draw something on the paper by itself. You cant fully control them, since your brain mostly is busy with the conversation. All you can do is periodically guide the patterns in the desired way, but only with these short impulses of consciousness. The result is the 100% true abstract illustration.

I’ve decided to use Wacom graphic pad for this task to not let myself destructed with choosing right pencil or tool, to not spent lots of time for the background and to be able to edit my work without any losses.

I own the pad for the long time now, but I rarely use it. Cant get a hold of it, actually: I usually spend too much concentration for the exploration of a new tool. But it should be right what is needed for this task. You can say it’s a first complete work I’ve made with it so far.

So, now I have my own set of forms for this music. The only thing left is to make it work. So I turned the visuals from my head into words:

• Passion
• Love
• Red
• Pulse
• Black
• Flamenco
• Roses

I spent a lot of time thinking how to combine it all on the final illustration. In the end I’ve decided it should be a pulsating rose petal on the black background. The form of the petal should remind of a dress swing of a girl, dancing flamenco.

Here is the result.

• Do you think your image would work as an illustration for a cover of a CD for the music you listened to?

Well, I’ve tried my best to make my illustration correspond the music of the group I’ve chosen. And I think I’ve succeeded in this. But this question is different. I’ve decided to check the real covers of their CDs. They have lots of albums and they have lots of different covers. For example:

But most of their covers looks like this:

After I’ve looked at these I think my illustration could have become one of their CD covers.

By the way, this time I didn’t do any kind of research before drawing for this task. I didn’t want to change my own perception with the other forms and feelings of other people. I did search for some other works on the topic after I finished, though. It wasn’t easy, but i found some.

For example, this drawing of Kris Tangri

The main thing i found was this photo. If my abstract illustration could be somehow turned into a photo, it should look like this one.

Categories: exercises, Illustration, Portfolio