Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Of Hoops and Healing: Remembering, Retelling, Reliving for Bostonia Magazine









THE CLIENT

Bostonia Magazine (Boston University's alumni magazine)

THE ASSIGNMENT

Seven illustrations for an interactive on-line experience, depicting an eight-step meditation ritual, designed by teacher and author, Onaje Woodbine. The ritual takes the participant through a journey of major points in black history, using basketball as a metaphor. By the end, he or she makes a personal commitment to better the future in spite of their struggles.

GETTING STARTED

My client forwarded me a storyboard, to follow. So, the direction was pretty well-defined.

The participant, symbolically, starts in Africa, traveling through slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, the underground railroad, the great migration, civil rights movement, and finishes at liberation. The intensity of the basketball game shifts as we travel this journey. The crowd echoes the mood by being joyful, riotous, mournful, or other appropriate emotion. Text and sound helps share the story and completes this unique interactive experience.

The seven illustrations take place at Malcolm X Park basketball courts. The point-of-view is from the participant, as if she or he were on-court, playing. Lastly, the story should transition from day to night and back to day, mirroring the high and low emotions of these events. The first illustration would be repeated as the eighth liberation step, coming full circle.

My first step was to start gathering reference.

The main setting is the court, so, I hunt for the courts at Malcolm X Park, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. There is a unique blue and white paint pattern that distinguishes the court. It should, also, reflect the mix of its urban and natural setting. I decide to utilize the short concrete wall as a backstop design element, and as a separator of the court from the trees. It allows me to combine the urban and natural elements without having to get too complex or distract from the main story.




Fortunately, I live near a park, with a basketball court. So, I dribbled on down the road and took plenty of photos to nail down my perspective and create a solid foundation for my illustrations. I included shots of me, in various positions, on the court, to further solidify my perspective, with the players and crowd.




The diffuse lighting, that day, was perfect, as it allowed me the greatest versatility, without having to deal with hard, directional shadows.

The next major element are the players. So, I got into my faux-basketball garb and snapped myself in a variety of defensive stances.




Lastly, the crowd. Again, I threw myself in front of the camera, taking various postures and actions, relevant to the stories the crowds would tell. I'm always considering consistent lighting, as I take these reference photos.






PRELIMINARY SKETCHES

Since the direction was pretty clearly defined, in my client’s storyboard, I just needed to flesh it out, including the tonal transition from day to night and back to day. I sent some initial sketches to ensure I was on the right track.









REVISIONS

My client was on-board, with it, all. Just a few minor adjustments to a couple of players were requested. The next step would be to refine the crowds, who would be helping to tell the story, by what they were doing, in each panel. I, also, wanted to refine the players’ faces, replacing my “for-position-only” heads, from my initial sketches.

I re-submitted the following, along with a color comp, to make sure our visions, aligned:










THE FINAL ART

All was approved. It was time to move, forward.

The final interactive experience may be seen, HERE.

Click “Enter The Court,” and follow the instructions to move through all eight steps. Take a moment to, also, click “Read The Story.” It’s quite fascinating to learn the story behind this journey.

My thanks to the folks at Bostonia for the opportunity to collaborate on this fantastic project.









Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Sunday, January 1, 2017

Buffalo Bills vs New York Jets for Old Spice



THE CLIENT

Wieden + Kennedy for Old Spice

THE ASSIGNMENT

A retro illustration book cover for a dramatized recreation of an NFL game, featuring the Buffalo Bills vs the New York Jets.

THE CHALLENGE

Respecting NFL guidelines, the illustration must feature six, specific NFL players, all, roughly, the same size, so as not to highlight one over the other. Also, include a jet and buffalo, to symbolize the teams.

GETTING STARTED

Old Spice is a major sponsor of the NFL. As part of their sponsorship, they would be producing a dramatized, social media story of an NFL game. Our illustration, commissioned in 2015, would be the book cover to this story. As noted, six, specific players should be featured, plus a jet and buffalo.

I was provided with some reference to show the montage, retro style they’d like to reflect. I started by gathering plenty of reference of the six players, requested. For the Jets: D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Darrelle Revis, and Nick Mangold. For the Bills: Eric Wood, Mario Williams, and Sammy Watkins.

PRELIMINARY SKETCHES

My thought process included playing with angles, perspective, overlap, and action. At this point, it was uncertain what color jerseys they would be wearing. So, I mocked in some placeholders. I provided several sketches, in various compositions.







REVISIONS

After review, my client liked the direction, but had some suggestions. They sent a sketch that showed a more iconic treatment of the buffalo and jet. We, also, learned that the teams would be wearing their Nike Color Rush jerseys. These are special jerseys which bring a bold, uniform color, from head-to-toe

I re-submitted the following color comp:



THE FINAL ART

With a separation of the buffalo and jet, as well as a bit more graphic look to the buffalo, we were approved to move, forward.



My thanks to the folks at Wieden + Kennedy and Old Spice for the opportunity to collaborate on this fun project.

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Kendra



THE ASSIGNMENT

Create a thick, rich, painterly portfolio piece.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a multi-layered, beautiful illustration filled with immediacy and dimensionality, while also working as a flat abstraction.

GETTING STARTED

I dabble in photography. A nice byproduct of this is I have an abundance of source material when I want to play, a bit, with the paint.

One such photo session was with one of my favorite collaborators, Kendra Scott. We tend to create magical images, together. This particular session was a metamorphosis-themed concept, transitioning — visually and metaphorically — from a beautiful facade to raw vulnerability. You can see and read about this beautiful and emotional session, HERE and HERE.

One of my favorite images, from our experience, was this simple, yet elegant, back shot. The sensual forms and shapes would provide lots of opportunity to juxtapose bold strokes and textures, and see what might pan out, in a painting.



Using the paint in a sculptural way, I strove for economy of mark-making — a few marks to define the dimension of a shoulder blade or a mass of hair.

Red is one of my favorite colors to exploit, in a piece of art. It’s an automatic call-to-arms, visually, and emotionally. It lets the subconscious know there is a bundle of emotion, residing, within.

What better way to exploit red, than with green, its complement?

The photo has a much more subdued background, which works, for the photograph. But, for my illustration, there needed to be more for the eye to touch and experience. I decided it needed to remain a non-descript background, but still be filled with detail and depth, to add that richness and energy I was looking for. Layers of lines, shapes, dots, and negative space, all trigger the mind, in different ways, while still harmonizing within that single background space. The green colors are just subdued, enough, to not overpower the main statement of the red. That’s important for color balance.

THE FINAL ART

To further enhance a sense of beautiful, painterly mark-making that also happens to create a recognizable series of forms, a ragged black border seemed to be the perfect final touch. In addition to creating a frame, the border intersects and blends into the figure, separating the picture into three shapes (negative space to the left and right of the figure, and the figure, itself). In doing these things, the frame starts to trick the eye into choosing between a 3-dimensional form or a flattened abstraction. The mind is always trying to make choices as it attempts to make sense of the world.

This complex journey into a piece of art is what makes an eye want to come back and investigate. The question of what is real vs what is illusion is one of the most important questions art can pose to a viewer. It is just one aspect of art that makes it such an important part of the human experience.

My thanks to the amazing, Kendra, for creating beautiful images, with me, and helping to make this artwork, possible.



Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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