One of my pieces for uni this year, a poster for 'buy nothing day'. My poster is based pretty heavily on Robert McGinnis's posters for Stella Artois 

I decided to study design as a practical way to study art, by this I mean that at the end of a design course there are options to work as part of an established industry. Whereas with a straight fine art course it becomes very much a make it on your own profession at the end of study. 

I also find there is a broad choice of focus when studying design. I personally enjoy the illustration, poster design and photographic elements of my course the most and hopefully I'll manage to specialise in these areas after my study. I would love to be able to make a career working in a similar way to Gruau and McGinnis producing hand illustrated posters and designs. 

Here's a couple more drawings, im planning on turning these into paintings when i get the time.

I thought id take a bit of time to explain how i work and what im trying to achieve in my work. I'll start by explaining where i get the sources for my most recent work...

At the moment being a student i don't have much access to models so i have started to base my drawings (such as the ones above) on photographs from the 1960's. As much as I would like to be using real life models this method does have its advantages. Firstly there is no time limit within which to complete initial sketches but also the models are already dressed in the eras clothing in which i want my pieces to be set. A further advantage is in the poses the models are in which are again more authentic to the era than i may be able to achieve with life models.

As far as materials are concerned i always start in pencil or graphite sticks, I then have the option to move onto ink and brush, drawing pens or paint. When painting i usually work in acrylics, (hopefully some of my painted work will find its way onto here before too long). I try to do all my painted work on canvas as I like the texture it gives to a piece.

I thought id start presenting some of my own work with some recent sketches...

The two pieces (above and below) are fairly polished with some colour added to the eyes

to give some impact to the drawings

I worked in drawing pen on all of the above pieces, i find this to be the technique im most comfortable with

The second Designer that is influencing me at the moment is Robert Mcginnis.

I only recently became aware of his work making links between his recent work on the 

Stella Artois advertising campaign and his work on the early bond film posters 

There is a warm 60's feel to McGinnis's work 

His representation of Connery as Bond is iconic and played a large part in

the early stylization of the Bond franchise

The inclusion of text on the back of female figures became a key feature in McGinnis's work

His recent work on the new image for Stella Artois drew my attention to McGinnis work.

I especially like the 60's Riviera look Stella and McGinnis have created.

Im new at this but i thought id start with a look at a couple of designers that are influencing me at the moment...

The first is my personal favorite Rene Gruau, working predominantly as a fashion illustrator and poster designer Gruau developed a sophisticated and elegant style often using only a few strokes to depict a glamorous scene.

The above shows Gruau's skill at combining image and type

Gruau's poster work for le Lido is some of his most striking work

This piece 'Ortalion' shows Gruau's stylish use of composition and sparing use of colour