Victoria Illustrates
The proccess of a Designer and Illustrator
1
All images and content of this book are copyrighted by Victoria Emily Aidala. Do not reproduce without the verbal or written consent of the artist.
- CONTENTS Artist Statement 3 America the Beautiful[?] 19 Savannah’s Boutiques 21 Identity Crisis 23 The Artist at Work 6 Humble Studio 7 Thank You 26 How I Sketch 9 My Creations 12 Three of Swords 13 Benefits of Plants 15
2
- ARTIST STATEMENT
Art has always been a way for me to communicate with others. It allows me to pull thoughts from my head and express them in ways words can not always describe. It’s a therapy that soothes my mind, while also creating a platform where express myself and things that I am passionate about. The illustrations I create have humble beginnings, as nothing more than chicken scratch in my sketchbook. Very rarely will I work with tradition materials, though I very much respect them, my sketchbook nothing more than a place to jot down ideas in the roughest form, trying to hone a composition or a gesture. With the use of pressure sensitivity and pixels on a screen, my work begins to transform into the vision I created for it in my mind. Using Adobe Photoshop, I create a stylized realism, with a majority of my subject matter focused around the female form. To me the form is complex and dramatic, allowing me to not only express my own femininity, but also using it as a vessel to embody the emotional, political and societal motifs that are often the subject matter in my illustrations. The work I create aid in my journey as a designer and illustrator. A free flowing creative environment is what I seek, a place where I can take these complicated subjects and illustrate them for all to see.
3
4
5
- THE ARTIST AT WORK -
6
- My Workspace
Humble is the word I would use to describe my “studio.� The space that is meant to be my dinning room is the place where I create and come up with a majority of the ideas for my illustrations. Beside me works my close friend, another artist who shares this space with me, Between us, our cat, who offers many meows of distraction and joy.
7
8
Here in Photoshop is where the magic happens. This is where projects come to life, become altered, or simply die due to lack of inspiration. My sketches begin on a green or grey background and with the use of red and blue line art I slowly watch the illustrations take form. From there I will begin to add black line art that eventually disappears depending on the type of project I am working on. Color is built up and eventually the green background is replaced with the colors from my pallet, and the illustration is transformed into the final product.
9
10
11
- MY CREATIONS -
12
- Three of Swords
The Three of Swords Tarot is a complex card depending on how the viewer draws the card. When viewed upright, the card depicts nothing but heartbreak and grief. If the card is drawn upside down or reversed, it stands for optimism, and forgiveness. This illustration was for a project called “getting to know you� where we created a piece to use for our own marketing that gave a brief insight into our selves. Here I depicted my fear of losing my hair, a clock represented by the phases of the moon, and the state of my mind during the time of the project. A revelation in my work occurred after this piece was created, pushing myself to create more dynamic pieces.
13
14
15
16
- Houseplants
The Five Benefits of Houseplants was one of the first projects that introduced me to the world of typography. Leading me to learn more about the subject and how to incorporate it into my illustrations, I explored type further in future projects. This double page spread started out as many, many thumbnails, which is the base of many of my illustrations. I felt the scene with a view of the city allowed greater understanding of what the article was about.
17
Color comps were the next phase of the project, allowing me to see how different colors created different moods for the piece. After selecting a warm green color scheme, I began to lay down colors in layers to create the final piece. Illustrations like this often include many layers so that I may freely adjust color and move items around without disturbing the rest of the composition. 18
- America the Beautiful [?]
I started out this project wanting to have a very brutal, in your face illustration. It took a lot of thumbnailing and reference to come up with this idea of America being polluted by big oil and other unforgiving fuels. I took it a step further and turned the illustration into a gif, with the oil dripping from her mouth and hands.
19
20
- Fashion Sketches This was a fun project for me. I was allowed to mix my passion for fashion and trends with my illustrated work to create several spot illustrations. I gave this project a foundation by focusing it on several small boutiques in the Savannah GA area. I went from store to store trying on outfits that the store owners picked out for me. Using myself as reference I brought these outfits into the illustrated world, each with their own distinct personalities.
21
22
- Identity Crisis-
The project that brought it all together. It solidified my goal as an illustrator, while also cleared the fog on who I wanted to others to see me as. The illustration represents the confusion that the mind is in when one experiences an identity crisis. This piece went through much process, as I wanted the message to be understood by the audience.
23
24
25
- THANK YOU Please visit victoriaaidala.com to view more of my Illustrations.
Contact Info victoria.illustrations@gmail.com +1 518-577-9344
v_illustrates
26