In April 2013, The Untapped Source team contacted me, after spotlighting my artwork on their website, with reference to doing a commission for their redevelopment of their own website. The proposal was to create a series of animal portraits. These would reflect qualities of the individuals and also show the individual in their work place.
After one month of working away on the pieces (with some strong support from the guys at Untapped) the four portraits were completed.
Original artwork scale: A1
Digital work: Photoshop
Drew is the head guy at Untapped, and the printing expert. He knows everything and anything that is required to get prints looking brilliant and as required.
For this commission, he was explained originally as a Sable. However, after some discussion about his character and appearance, it was decided that the cool nature and tall physique best suited a polar bear. Which sat well in both camps, and especially me, as I always wanted to draw a polar bear.
This is the final pencil render used for Drew.
Artwork: A1 Bristol Paper 200gms
Faber-Castell 3B graphite lead
This is the completed composition in Time Lapse. You will be able to see it come together from the scanned sketch to the final artwork. The video is around 43mins.
Scott is the accountant at Untapped, and general business expert. He basically keeps the wheels rolling on the production line and the cash flow monitored.
For this commission, he was explained as being wise, so instantly the thoughts of owls appeared. As it was observed that Scott wore a beard research showed that there was an owl called a bearded owl. This was the focus of the design, with some minor modifications to allow the humanistic look and feel to come in. All in all, he got his monies worth.
For this commission, he was explained as being wise, so instantly the thoughts of owls appeared. As it was observed that Scott wore a beard research showed that there was an owl called a bearded owl. This was the focus of the design, with some minor modifications to allow the humanistic look and feel to come in. All in all, he got his monies worth.
This is the final pencil render used for Scott.
Artwork: A1 Bristol Paper 200gms
Faber-Castell 3B graphite lead
This is a capture in time-lapse of the process of drawing Scott's image on the Bristol paper. In all it took around 15 hours to render.
This is the completed composition in Time Lapse. You will be able to see it come together from the scanned sketch to the final artwork. The video is around 66mins.
Mike at Untapped, is the technical wizard and web guy. He's the guy that codes the lines of info that brings the website to a point of sale.
After the initial briefing from the crew, the idea was to show Mike as a wolf. This was due to the description that stated Mike was in fact the pack leader, and brought many of the projects together. So, after some research the choice of animal was set at the grey wolf, which is the most common, but also has a striking coat. To tie in a few elements of Mike's personality, a hockey stick was added in the background (Canadian of course) and an actual copy of the one he uses, plus a series of books he has on his work station to aid in the web development. It seemed obvious that the wolf should be sitting at a computer, so the pose was set as such, and the image came together quite easily.
This is the final pencil render used for Mike.
Artwork: A1 Bristol Paper 200gms
Faber-Castell 3B graphite lead
This is the completed composition in Time Lapse. You will be able to see it come together from the scanned sketch to the final artwork. The video is around 32mins.
Ken is the art director at Untapped, and expert at gallery artwork framing and presentation. It was Ken who suggested that this project happened, after seeing the original series online.
Ken did the original briefing for the project, and from the start stated that he saw himself as a fox. Sitting on this idea for a day or two, the lateral ideas popped in, of the fact that Ken was involved in the framing side of the business, and foxes tend to get a bad rap, and are framed for many a bad thing that happens around domestic livestock. So the idea was born of having the fox actually framed visually through a frame that he is holding. This was combined with the drawing table, that carried the requested image of Ken's favourite artist, Nagel. The image being that of the piece used on Duran Duran's album cover.
After initial images were drawn and it was decided to remove clothing from the animals, Ken also requested that a Rolex watch was added to his wrist (as he has one as a gift). This was the final aspect painted on the animal.
This is the final pencil render used for Ken.
Artwork: A1 Bristol Paper 200gms
Faber-Castell 3B graphite lead
Ken's Rolex watch.
This is a capture in time-lapse of the process of drawing Scott's image on the Bristol paper. In all it took around 15 hours to render.
This is the completed composition in Time Lapse. You will be able to see it come together from the scanned sketch to the final artwork. The video is around 30mins.
