The Musicians Illustrated Series

A set of illustration of artists that have come and gone, but left a mark on the world forever.

I want to share a little project I worked on recently. As a designer, music is so important to me, it’s what I listen to all day as I work. It’s like the music is a part of my job. A few months ago, I got an itch. Generally these itches start off as a small play in Procreate, and end up taking over my life for a week or so. It’s an addiction.

This time it was an itch to illustrate Phil Lynott, the lead singer of Thin Lizzy, a Dublin based band. I guess the main reason the creative itch appeared was because I wanted to challenge myself to do something I felt I needed practice on, portraits. Trying to get a likeness, capture a character as well as trying out some new techniques on the iPad that I generally would get a chance to in my day job. I felt Philo’s afro and general vibe would be a good place to start.

Usually these series spawn their own style, they start off as one, then I push the style across multiple different versions to really push the style as far as they can go, using the same brush, the same stroke weights, color palettes etc.

Check out the first timelapse of the series.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YxEF4STatUU

When one illustration was created, the addiction started. I’d wake up after dreaming of new possible recruits. One night, Bob Marley came to me and asked ‘Hey Al, illustrate me, ya hear me? You know you want to you bad, bad raggamuffin….’. So that was it. I knew it was time. I stopped eating cheese before bedtime and wrote a list of possible musicians that I could illustrate. All dead for some reason. I guess they couldn’t speak to me in my dreams if they were still alive, right.

You can buy any of them here if interested…cheap cheap…
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/AlPowersShop?ref=profile_header&section_id=36687870

Anyway, here is the full set of musicians.

Phil Lynott

Notorious BIG

Ian Curtis

Prince

Amy Winehouse

Beethoven

David Bowie

Luke Kelly

Bob Marley

John Lennon

BONUS CONTENT

So after I ran out of steam with the musicians, I started to create some Irish Poets in a similar style. Each with quotes from their work behind them

Bernard Shaw

Samuel Beckett

William Butler Yeats

James Joyce

Oscar Wilde

So thats about that. If you want to know more about my process, or want to just shoot the 💩 feel free to pick my brain (or whats left of it) over at:

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