Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
Yeah there is. There's the slight rising panic of knowing that your illustration is going to be the first thing that people see, and that people will potentially judge the magazine’s content after seeing it. That was something I thought about constantly during the process and I had to keep calming myself down slightly as a result. But in terms of the actual process of the illustration, it was very similar to how I’ve approached my other work. It was more about dealing with that added pressure rather than the actual processes itself.
When it comes to doing a portrait, I always do my own research and try to find a lot of photos of the individual. If it's a player that I don't know very well, I want to see what they look like from different angles. I'll even watch a few interviews with them, just to get a better perspective. Then I start sketching it out, after finding a couple of angles of the face that I like. The final cover that you'll see was probably the fourth version I produced, as I scrapped earlier copies because they didn’t work for me. My actual process itself starts with sketching the portrait, before tightening it further. Once I'm happy with the proportions, I then start laying on flat colour, before a bit of shading and lighting later on.
I did try and think more about depth and texture, because people were going to be able to hold the magazine in their hands and look at it as closely as they wanted. I've added some quite subtle textures in there, and also half-tones that hopefully help those aspects come through a lot more. In terms of special techniques, I didn’t do anything particularly different other than making the image richer, especially in terms of textures.
It's funny because I initially thought, "I'm going to nail this first time." He's got quite a striking face, a deep set of eyes and quite a big brow, all of which are strong facial features. I really thought I was going to be able to capture this quite quickly in those initial sketches. Typically I look to get the lightness right early on and then build on that, but for whatever reason – and maybe this was me overthinking it, as I knew this was to be a cover – I was really keen to nail it early on, so that desire for perfection might have played into those early struggles. So, I would say that while I initially thought he had an easy face to paint, it turned out he had a hard face to paint.
I did some screen recordings while I was working, which is something I don't normally do with my work, so that was always in the back of my mind. It’s slightly odd when you're drawing while knowing that you’re being recorded so I did find myself working in a slightly different way, which I eventually got to grips with. But there were some initial challenges in focusing on the drawing aspects and not on the filming.
I feel like there's more of a market for the flamboyant striker in terms of illustrations, yet I was able to do some portraits of Desailly and Nesta a few years ago. But since then, Koulibaly is the first defender I've drawn for two years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to draw a centre-back.
In terms of football illustrations, there are loads of great illustrators out there whose work I’m constantly looking at: people like Stan Chow and Phil Galloway. I like David Squires, who does the Guardian football cartoon, and the humour that he gets into his work, which is something I always try to add where I can. Daryl Rainbow is a fun football illustrator who uses great bright colours too. So those would be specific football illustrators whose work I look at. In terms of other influences, I watch cartoons a lot and I'm always trying to soak up the techniques that they use. I always want to be moving forward with my work and I think a massive part of that is looking to see how other people work, and the colours and techniques that they use.
I grew up in Hackney and my school was on the Holloway Road, about two minutes away from the old Arsenal stadium. My school was so close that they used to give tickets to kids in my school. I went on a school trip to an Arsenal game as a nine-year-old, in the year when we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup. My dad was not massively into football so I turned up to a floodlit Highbury with no context at all. From there, I was in love.
