Past Work: Character Sketches for Children's Story

Recent Work: Pencil Sketches for Political Cartoon

I was dumbfounded at the report of the fracas that ensued yesterday at the River State House of Assembly. 'Honourable' representatives of the people forgot their honour and acted shamefully for the public.

This was the last straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. I had to shelf my busy schedule to create two cartoons that aptly expressed my disappointment with a certain crop of Nigerian political leaders. You may watch the video on YouTube.

Recent Work: Sleeping Beauty And Frankenstein's Monster

I have just concluded work on the third instalment in my Revised Fairy Tales And Fiction poster designs. My version of the story Beauty and the Beast showcases Frankenstein's monster and Sleeping Beauty. This latest work features my take on the fictional reanimated creature as he rescues the enchanted African princess from captivity. The silhouette of the prison tower can be seen in the background.

To start, I had to make a fairly detailed pencil drawing with shading to guide the colour rendition. In CorelDRAW, I draw the outlines in vector closing following my pencil drawing. And after proceeded to add flat colours and build details into each element. To make the work less complicated, I drew each element on it's own layer. Various stages of the rendering are posted below.

You can view the whole project so far at my Behance portfolio. 

2012 Copyright Olusola Akinseye

Recent Work: Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul & Mary

I enjoy listening to the mellow music of the 1963 song Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary. I also find the story about the poem that inspired the song equally interesting. This is my version of the magestic creature and his young friend Jackie Paper.  

Artwork copyright 2012 Olusola Akinseye

Recent Work: 'Police Arrest Native Doctor' Cartoon

I read about the splendid work the Onitsha Police did over this weekend (Punch Newspapers, written by Emmanuel Obe). The culprits included a 'juju man' who provided supernatural protection for the armed thieves. Though armed robbery is a sad and serious matter, I found the superstition of the robbers and the moment of clarity, when they discover their faith in charms was futile, to be very funny. Hence this cartoon.

Copyright 2011 Olusola Akinseye.

Recent Work: Ancient Yoruba Character Designs

I am working on a project that requires period designs of six characters from the political and military life of ancient Yoruba culture. I found the Oba, Iyalode, Oluwo, Balogun, Eso and Ilari suitable for my purpose.

 

 

 

 

The pencil art has been ready over a year but I just had time to work on the painting.

 

 

 

 

 

I felt my first Iyalode design (below) was too modern. I decided to make her look more 'powerful' to reflect her political might (above).

All artwork copyright 2011 Olusola Akinseye

Recent Work: Poverty And Hunger In Africa Cartoon

I just finished illustrating a cartoon about poverty and hunger in Africa. I based my concept on the wide difference between the abundance of the ‘Haves’ and the abject lack of the ‘Have-nots’. The visual might seem a bit distasteful for some, but I feel it aptly demonstrates the current state and expectation of the impoverished.

The first sketch captures the composition in profile. I later felt it was too tidy and I could have done a better job illustrating the obese man stuffing himself. A point of interest for me in this composition, is the reality of ‘trickle-down’ economics in third world society. That is, the improvement of the state of the poor is connected to what flows down from above. And we all know what flows downhill. 

The second composition took about 5 hours to complete.

  

I focused on visually displaying the supply difference: surfeiting against limited supply.

 

I did not want to resort to the common cartoon practice of sticking a label on the second man that reads ‘Africa’. I feel the observant viewer might instead notice the peculiar shape of his head.

 

Copyright 2011 Olusola Akinseye

Recent Work: The Big Bad Wolf

The tale of The Three Little Pigs is a very popular one, especially because of the villain of the story- the big bad wolf. I find it fun to retell the story in a different genre. This poser design features an adaptation of the tale in a gangland, film-noir-influenced concept. The pig brothers (Hayes, Woody and Rocky) are real estate moguls who are in conflict with an unnamed enemy. Enter the Big Bad Wolf aka The Huff and Puff Bounty Hunter with his Mega Blower gun. The hit is on.

Character design: The faces of the pig brothers feature in my design concept. Hayes is the pig that built his house with hay. He dons a straw hat and wears a holiday pattern shirt. He has a carefree attitude to life. Woody is conservative in his bowler hat and multicoloured bow tie. He built his house with wood. Rocky is more practical in his working man’s garb. His own house is made of stone.

 

The wolf is drawn in his mafia-hit-man-inspired hat and trench coat, his cold eyes peep from under his leather hat.

Vector ‘painting’ technique: I created each element of the final design separately and composed the poster in a new file. To make it easier to handle the complicated arrangement of vector shapes, I use layers. At first, I draw out the lines over my scanned pencil sketch and then draw shapes for the basic light and shades. Once I have enough to clearly define the object, I fill in the appropriate colours and add more shading using transparent graphics.

 Poster design graphics: When I finished painting the wolf and pigs, I create a template for the poster and import the finished illustrations into place. The border designs and graphic texts are placed and I am done. Of course, I had to try several colours until I was satisfied. The final poster design is slightly different from my initial idea, but I am happy with the result.