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

Past Event: My Struggle For Illustration Credit

These ink portraits were commissioned in 2003 (I think). Back then I did not get credit for my work. I sheepishly (and rebeliously) slipped in my initials into one of the portraits.

 

The illustrations were part of a commission for the biographies of two icons of Nigeria's history and politics- Sir Alhaji Amadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The later was reviewed in one of the nations newspapers and my artwork was praised. Unfortunately, the reviewer referred to me as 'the artist' as the book did not bear my illustration credit.

That event showed me how much damage I was incurring by not being credited. Shortly after, I totally refused to work for any client that (for whatever reason) would omit my credit in their publications. My new stance met with some resistance at first. One client insisted that I not work for any other publisher in other to be granted recognition for my works. But I have also meet clients that were even willing to add my contact details to my credits in their publications.

Today, about 50% of my commissions come from reference from past works. That's just one of the landmark events in my journey as a professional freelance illustrator in Nigeria.

 

Past Work: Tortoise Versus Elephant Illustration

One of the most popular tales about Ijapa (Yoruba name for Tortoise) is how he used his wiles to overcome the mighty Elephant. These illustrations were commissioned for a short retelling of the story.

 

Recent Work: Character Designs For Fairy Tale

I created some designs for a prospective commission featuring the ever troublesome Tortoise and his friend Rabbit in an adaptation of a well-told Yoruba folk tale. The designs were made in CorelDRAW X4.

 All the designs are copyright protected.

Past Work: Animals In Vector Illustration

I made several illustrations for a pre-primary text book several years ago. It was a chance to work in vector and I really enjoyed creating so many spot illustrations. Below are some of the animals in the book.

Recent Work: Colour Pencil Drawings

I have been busy with conceptual work in the past month and half- generating character designs for jobs I can not post just yet. I needed a break from digital art so I purchased a set of Crayola colour pencils and a sketch pad.

Its fun to draw on paper, I can't remember the last time I drew with coloured pencils! While the interest lasts, I will make as many sketches as possible.

Recent Work: The Wicked Witch Of The West

An interesting character in the popular tale The Wizard of Oz is the Wicked Witch of The West. She was made popular in the Judy Garland version of the movie adaptations.

Character design: I decided to draw her in the superhero genre as a villain. However, I veered from the old, green skinned, haggard looking wart-infested visage in popular culture. The WWOTW version 2.0 is an attractive looking woman consistent with comic book standards. You have to look into her eyes to catch a glimpse of the latent malevolence.

 

Her costume features tightly clad leotard, cape and even an exaggerated magic wand. Instead of the proverbial witch on a broom stick, I updated her means of transport to a redesigned vacuum cleaner fitted with propulsion jet pack.

Vector ‘painting’ technique: This is quite similar to the method I used on The Big Bad Wolf. An interesting thing happened during the design for the poster. I imported the on-going painting of the witch to see how the colours are in relation to the final design. During these tests, I discovered that I needed to mirror the witch on her Vacuum Cleaner 2000X to have a better composition. This is one of the advantages of vector illustration over the popular raster-based digital painting techniques.

Poster design graphics: The background clouds, compass graphic and lines are included on the final design. I also increased her face a little for a tighter composition.

 

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.

Recent Event: 2011 Election Riots

Following the results of the presidential elections, riots broke out in several cities in Northern Nigeria. Sadly, there was a lot of property damage, and worse, loss of life. This is not the first time such a terrible thing has happened and its difficult to believe it won’t happen again. The problem is that we often forget.

This poster design is titled: Stop The Senseless Violence and is available for free downloading and distribution with your friends and online connections. Let’s not forget the unfortunate and costly loss of live for no reason.
Visit https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MB29F3yDETlHwK9La6xtgo4OZdUZ2c2JnO9t_WkPk6E?feat=directlink for a high resolution image of the poster.