Concept

The initial concept for the illustrations was inspired by the written piece. The writing set out to tell the story of a day, and I wanted to play with the same idea. By having each design revolve around a time of day, I was able to create a unifying theme while giving each subject his own unique portrait.

Research

I started work on the portraits prior to seeing the final draft of the piece. Taking some of the initial information into account, I set about researching the men’s stories for additional details and photo reference.

Having completed my research, I began to sketch. My focus at this stage is to solidify my approach to lighting and likeness. Both of which have to account for differences in the quality and availability of reference images.