Obliskura is the long-awaited book by Alex Konstad. He is a concept artist and illustrator from the forests of Portland Oregon, currently living in Los Angeles California. He has worked for clients such as Blizzard Entertainment, Games, Reelfx, Psyop FX, Games Workshop, SpinMaster Toys, and Sony Online Entertainment and is currently working for Netflix.
The production of the book was curated by Spiridon Giannakis and printed in Éditions Caurette. The standard version of the book has 200 page hardcover in A4, matte coated with golden and red foil used in the title. At the same time, the collector's edition included a book with 216 pages, hardcover, halfbound, gold-foil cover and slipcase. All the content in both versions of the book are printed on 150g silk paper.
The book was launched in the September 2020 of Kickstarter and was successfully funded.
At this moment, almost all preordered books have been delivered to backers and got a lot of praise.
I was commissioned to create logotype and additional artwork for this book, which includes high-detailed ornaments, additional illustrative assets elements and calligraphic details. I'm pleased to show you the results we've achieved with out collaborative work.
My workflow can separated into three stages: creation of assets, ornaments and final page layout design. So let's dive into what I've done.
ASSETS AND TYPOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS
At it's said often, start small and then grow big. Firstly I made some of minor elements for the book, just to find the proper vibe. Since some of the elements were repeated constantly, the proper way was to create a small raster font, which consists of abstract symbols. All drawn elements were based on Alex's work, but with some minor changes.
Most of work was done in Procreate, but the compilation of illustrations was stored in big Photoshop file. As you might suggest, I've used symmetry all the time, but in some cases I was avoiding it because of strict unnatural mechanical appearance. To achieve a more "living" look I was adding a bit of asymmetry after the final work was done.
Making the typography elements was really fun, since for a long time I had an idea to create something very close to Arabic calligraphy but still remain in the field of abstract shapes. This project looked like a chance to do such experiment and it was totally worth it. By doing such, I've achieved a more mystic appeal to my illustrations, since Middle East culture is often considered mystic, forbidden and magical.
ORNAMENTS
Ornaments are the most detailed illustrations I've done during this project. Some of them are made of joined fragments from assets I did, but mostly they are standalone graphic elements. Some of the ornaments expand the story that is told in Alex's illustrations.
Due to some obvious limitations, I can't show all spreads of the book, but below are the pictures how the alignment of the elements was done. Different situations made me use different instruments, but I was working in Procreate and Photoshop simultaneously.
FINAL RESULT
After getting my own copy of Obliskura book, I did some photo shooting to show you the final product of our collaboration.
I really hope that you've gained a lot of inspiration from this project as much as I did during the whole workflow. Honestly, I really had fun making this.
Please don't forget to appreciate. Stay tuned for more awesome projects.
Truly yours,
Viktor Pushkarev
@mynameisviktor
Please don't forget to appreciate. Stay tuned for more awesome projects.
Truly yours,
Viktor Pushkarev
@mynameisviktor
