so you wanna know what a realistic day in the life of an illustrator is like
you clicked around watched some youtube videos and what you have found is a bunch of people doing
beautifully mundane things like brushing their teeth in the morning looking like they have
just woken up maybe doing a little bit of yoga at home watering their houseplants or feeding their
cat/dog yeah all of that is all well and good it makes great content it creates a personal brand i
get all that but i'm going to take a leap of faith here and assume you clicked on
this video because you want to know about the WORK of an illustrator that gets done
in a day so let me tell you all about that hey guys welcome back to our channelthe
number one place for people who love design art and all things creative you are watching
Dantier + Balogh's channel my name is Laszlo and i do graphic design and illustration in this video i
want to show you what's it like to work on a real brand illustration project jumping straight in
so it's about 11:30 ish in the morning and i just got off a zoom call with a client of mine
i mentioned this in an earlier video how whenever it's up to me i always like to schedule client
meetings and calls into the morning because that gives me the chance to move on to the creative
work in the afternoon while all the new client feedback is still very very fresh in my mind
makes sense right what you need to know about the project itself is that we are building a set of
key branding elements for this new venture focusing on nature ecology wildlife plants
and the science behind all that cool stuff now during this zoom call, we agreed on the main
brand illustration element that we need to develop further which is going to be this nice little fox
design i would hesitate to call this a logo because it's much more complex than your
average logo design is in fact i wasn't sure if i should name this video a day in the life of
a graphic designer or an illustrator because this project is a little bit of both but at the end of
the day they're basically gonna use this little fox cause their brand logo so they approved the
idea they like the basic layout so what we need to get on with the next couple hours or so is to
color this in let's get on with it here you can see we are in adobe illustrator and i already
have a couple color blocks saved out here which i think i will start with but at this point i is at
the right to change my mind about certain shades as i just want to see where the project takes me
the brief says they want earthy colors so it is pretty open at this point
so i lock in this linework layer and fill things out with color below it
i start with the main color which is going to be just a big shape i create with the pen tool
by roughly following the line works path then i'm going to turn to the blob brush to fill in
these little planty bits and bobs the blob brush is my best friend these days which i
have to admit i never used to use in the past but lately i find myself relying on it more and more
now i don't know how many of you know this but if you want to know the difference
well the normal brush in illustrator works by creating vector paths right so if you do some
lines here and there and you select them you can play around with the selection points and change
the line's directions now on the other hand if you use the blob brush it's going to create
well a blob it makes up a big shape with selection points that you can play around with
AROUND the shape yeah which is very useful if you want to fill things in in a more intuitive
way rather than relying on the pen tool now as you can see i change some of these colors
on the drawing as i go and make up the final color palette by experimentation i even change
some of the line work here and there for a better synergy between shapes and colors this is why this
process can take a bit longer than you would expect sometimes things don't look as good in
practice as they did in your head while planning so you need to put the groundwork in right
now i want to create a highlighting effect between the edges of my color and the shape layer
just to give yet another layer of visual interest to the piece i do this by using my
blob brush again and adding some contrasting color lines on top of my base color layers
but under the line layer hopefully this will make the design pop a little bit more
so this is done we've been at it for a couple hours quite happy with how it looks now
and gosh do i need a lunch break yes i do so let's save everything turn away
from the screen for an hour or so and i'll see you guys here after i have some lunch
or to be a bit more honest with you after this adbreak
you're good still here okay let's go back to the gold mine so now it's about three in the
afternoon we have done the creative leg work so what i wanna get some of it for the rest of the
day start building a presentation pdf about this project on this pdf i showcase this new colored in
fox for the client so they see how i came up with you know the color scheme showing some process
shots and all in all, document where we are in our project in a nice clean professional manner
in a previous video i explained what i think is the best way to show creative work to a client
which is effectively a system i came up with relying on four stages marked by four distinct
pdf presentations documenting the whole creative project from beginning to end i'll link that video
here if you have missed that one now with this current naturey foxy project we are at stage 2.
i already showed them some stuff which they liked so it is the fine tuning book that i'm going to
be working on in which my job is to further develop the stuff that they approved of in
stage one yeah now this presentation is not gonna get finished today cause first of all there are a
bunch of other changes that are still need to be done to some other brand elements i'm working on
but i thought still i can start working on the fine-tuning book formatting it a little
bit and putting all these foxy bits that we have just done now this is how this looks in practice
first of all i always put a 'before' shot referencing what the design work looked like
the last time the client has seen it just so they have a clear comparison then of course i
showed them what the design looks like now after all the changes they wanted me to do
then i like to show a little design evolution so they see how i got from a to b this is not
always needed but i find it's a very nice thing to include in a presentation you know why not
and then of course i explain myself with a paragraph or two telling them about all the
creative decisions i have come to while putting this illustration together by the way i'm planning
to upload these pdf presentation templates onto our website which you will be able to buy as
a comprehensive digital download package in the next couple days so if you feel like you could use
some help putting case studies together for your projects keep an eye on our website it's coming
soon now as i said there is still a lot of work which needs to be completed for this project
in the coming days i need to draw up another little animal design for these guys which is
only at its basic sketch stage at the moment and i'm also working on some typographic designs for
them which i think i'll might show you guys in another upcoming video sometime in the future
because designing logo types playing with fonts letters and words is a lot of fun and if you're
into graphic design you're going to enjoy it but all of that has to wait for another day so the
fine tuning book is shaping up and it's almost six o'clock meaning this is what i was able to
squeeze into one working day a zoom meeting a bit of illustration and a bit of presentation design
i would say most days i do do a little bit more than this especially if a big deadline
is coming up and of course documenting this whole process in the form of this video has
slowed me down a little bit still hopefully this video gives you an idea of what it's like to work
as an illustrator at home in this day and age i'm very sorry that there was no section on what do i
eat in a day or you know some of those very comfy sofa drawing clips and i'm also sorry for being so
damn cynical but i genuinely do not understand how can people do serious work on an ipad pro
lying down in their sofas i mean i would be sure to just procrastinate a whole day away if
i tried doing something like that so actually you know what kudos to you ipad artists of the world
anyway i'll keep you updated how this project goes in the forms of videos i guess so to make
sure you're not missing out on any of that and more join our creative crew i'm all about graphic
design and illustration and Jacqueline's content is focusing on interior architecture and design
insights tutorials and everything in between please leave a like to help us reach more people
with this channel and i hope to see you this time next week with something else okay see ya