I was commissioned by the University of Iowa Magazine to create an illustration for one of their alumni, Tuma Basa, a hip-hop trendsetter and executive who was going to be interviewed by the publication.

We started with a round of sketches and the vibe was supposed to be very 80s hip-hop with a twist of digital players elements like "pause and play" buttons. I really wanted to capture the intensity of the music scene as well as give it a really dynamic feel.

The client chose the first sketch and we made some refinements. We changed the placement of his name and brought the mixtape to the forefront.

For the next round we worked with a rough color placement to get a sense of what the final piece would look like. The client asked for a 80s-90s hip-hop color palette and I had a lot of fun diving into old CD covers to come up with the colors. At this point we also had to decide if we wanted the illustration to have a black outline or not.

And here's the final piece. The client chose the outlined version and I added more details and texture to the piece. I'm super happy with how this one turned out :)