illustrator portrait

For this assignment, I chose to do a portrait of Wyatt Shears, a member of the band The Garden. The Garden is a bass and percussion duo between Wyatt and his brother, Fletcher. I discovered this band just a couple of years ago and quickly fell in love with their music, style and performances. I wanted to capture the eccentricity and uniqueness of his style, so I chose a simple yet interesting photo of him. I chose the background color because it is a bit unusual, but contrasts well with the portrait itself.

            For the portrait, I did varying levels of detail. In the face and hair, I chose to do a simple style of shading by only using the essential highlights and shadows. Wyatt has a very angular face and I wanted to capture the sharpness of his features in the shading. For the shirt, I did a partially rendered version and for the jacket I did a simple two-tone interpretation. I think the cheetah print is fun and eclectic, much like Wyatt’s style, so I wanted it to stand out.