First up on the list of contemporary illustrators / style icons I'll be clumsily aping is Jorge Alderete, born 1971 in Caleta Olivia, Argentina. He describes himself as a "pop illustrator, who uses trash culture, '50s science-fiction films, wrestling and surf-music imagery in [his] psychotronic illustrations, animations, and comics."
The main stylistic and content-related takeaways I aimed to emulate this week were: (1) Sharp contrast and heavy outlines, (2) Head and shoulder portraits, (3) Delicately inked people, animals, and objects to fill out the portraits, (4) Bright, clean, digital color, (5) Complementary or near-complementary colors; limited color palate, (6) Pop art/comics-inspired half-tone dot shading, (7) Patterns, stippling, and color blocking, but very little traditional shading or detail, (8) Playful incorporation of text, and (9) Establishment of a kind of narrative; Alderete's portraits evoke a strong sense of place.
In one interview, Alderete states: "My relationship with 'the portrait' changes substantially for me when the portrayed person ceases to be an unknown person, and becomes someone in my immediate surroundings."
Thus, this week's chosen subject matter: mentors and ghosts / Great White Novelists I've caught mid ball-scratch / "literary daddies."
(A.K.A. Wonderful, kind writers who I'm immensely grateful to have had the privilege to work with.)
Materials/Tools: Wacom Tablet, Adobe Creative Cloud, snippets of handwriting and color commentary from old critique letters.
Initial sketches: Micron Pens, loose printer paper (I know, I know, I'm judging me too.) All color and composition via Wacom Tablet, Adobe Photoshop.