Mayra Andrade Illustration

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This is the final illustration. Mayra Andrade is a Cape Verdean singer who performed "Tan Kalakatan" in Colors Studios, which is where this image is from. I originally planned on using 3 tones fo the shading. But I felt I needed to push it further.

This is a work in progress shot that shows the details of her face. A challenge I came across was how to build the shades of tone without it being so harsh. That is the nature of working with vectors.

In this shot, I planned out the outlines of the major parts of the photo. It definitely helped me out later.

At this point, the major pieces and outlines have been filled in with slightly different colors so I can visually differentiate what piece is where. That will change later on.

The jacket pattern on the left side of her wardrobe was a hurdle I had to figure out so I can create a likeness. I studies the image and picked out the colors and placement of the squares so that when repeated, it would repeat CORRECTLY. It took quite a few tries and experimenting, but I got it right. by creating a symbol in the program, it slowed down my computer significantly, making it slow to do the simplest tasks. So I created bigger groups and it helped some and I couldn't wait to apply it to the jacket...

Here is the result! Notice that I changed the angles on the sleeve and lapels to match the photograph. This gives it some more visual interest as well.

Now on to the shading. I figured I'd keep it just 3 tones.

I later changed my mind about using 3 tones and had fun with it! There is definitely more depth and character in the final piece when you take your time in creating the different tones in the subtle folds of the fabric.

I had a lot of fun creating this illustration and I'm thinking of continuing doing more projects like this!

Thanks for checking out my work!

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