Wednesday, January 22, 2014

2014 Zodiac Illustrations for the National Post

Click image to enlarge.

 I've always wanted to do a series of Zodiac illustrations so when I was asked to do them for the National Post I was all over it!

Series are challenging and fun for a bunch of reasons. They have to look like they belong together but not look too similar. I like sticking with one colour palette when I do a series, so those colours have to be able to work together well and perform different functions.

Because I wanted to stuff a bunch of astrological info into each illustration, I created a template that all of the illos would follow:

1. The astrological symbol in red and yellow in a nested frame.
2. The animals/figures depicting each sign in the middle.
3. Background of the central frame is the element (earth, air, fire, water) associated with the sign.
4. Bottom left is the planetary symbol that governs the sign.
5. Upper left and bottom right areas for plants and flowers associated with the sign.

And of course when it comes to workload, all my usual time estimates had to be multiplied by twelve! That certainly made it kinda daunting :P.

Sketches:

Some of the illustrations got printed in greyscale inside the newspaper, so I redid the illustrations so they'd work well in shades of grey:

Which is your favourite? :)

-- Julia
Portfolio site

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazing illustration Julia :)