14 Week Challenge - Grounded Week 1

The time has finally come, it's 14 week challenge. In this challenge, I will be creating images through photography and my graphic design abilities to create something spectacular. 

So the word of the week is Grounded and i started off with researching artists which will help me give inspiration to my final work. For those who feel like you don't know any artists to research here is a link to some of the great designers and artists flickr set provided by Leif Peng.


I decided that Robert McGinnis would work nicely because in his artwork image, one with the women, he creates a high fashion, gentle, and a royal feel to the model. And in his other image, Robert gives definition to the tree. He also uses good use of colours to his artwork, he uses bright vibrant colours and makes elements pop.  

Ive started with thumbnails to get some ideas of how to incorporate the word grounded.

After choosing the tree theme from the thumbnails, Ive invited my model Jen and start taking some images of her in a photo studio. In just a matter of minutes I got my perfect lighting situation and started with my photo shoot. The camera i am using is a Nikon D90, with an aperture of 5.6 at a shutter speed of 160th of a second. And soon I got my image that i was looking for.

After capturing the image, I started using software Photoshop to enhance and turn the image into a human tree with the help of stock images found on free stock websites.

After a lengthy process of photo shopping, i got my final image. Hope you enjoyed this blog and stay tuned for next one.

International Women's Day!

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." This is a quote from a well known icon who I will be spending next couple of weeks illustrate as a special day is near. On March 8th will be the International Women's Day and I would like to pay a tribute to a special women who was a forigner and was poor. She dedicated her life to helping and feeding the poor in the slum dogs of India. Her name is Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known as Mother Teresa. 

I started off with thumbnails to see which pieces fit together 

My next transition will be to rough draft with a pencil.

The artwork will be a 18 x 24 inch long, and will be painted in acrylics on a masonite board.

That is all for now, have a good day! 

Week 1 - The Opening Act.

Before we get down to the dirty, let me introduce a little bit about myself. My name is Zoheb Shaikh, a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and a Photographer. I was always interested in drawing since i was a child, but didn't know where i fit in the arts industry. So once i got out of high school, i took Arts and Design Foundation for a year which made me love two career choices, Graphic Design and Photography. It has been almost two years since and I am in my last semester of my Graphic Design diploma. But I still want to brush my photography skills, thus the 14 week challenge.

What is this 14 week challenge you ask? It is a weekly challenge, appointed to improve my Photography and Graphic Designing skills. Each week a word will be appointed from illustration friday and with that word, no matter what meaning comes out of it, i have to illustrate my work. In this blog, I will be posting from the research and inspiration, thumbnails, rough draft, to final artwork. Besides the 14 week challenge there will be other Art work posted on here as well.