EMELBI

Digital Artist and Illustrator

Cinderella – Production Design

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All Stars Performing Arts Presents – Cinderella

Production Design

I love working with this performing arts group. The productions are always fantastic and the young people involved with the group put their hearts and souls into every performance. The adults that get involved are fabulous too.

All Stars Performing Arts recently put on a production of Cinderella at the Bradford Playhouse. I was asked to look after production design which entailed flyer design, T Shirt design for the troop, stage setting design for projection, programme design including all headshots of the cast, social media banners etc. I also got to be a stage ninja too, which is helping out with prop placement and removal between scenes among other activities. The whole production was such a lot of fun to be involved with.

My approach to the main design element very much reflected upon the two sides of Cinderella within the storyline. The Downtrodden Cinders, forced to look after her evil stepmother and stepsisters who treated her like a slave in her own home. Drab, dowdy and covered in muck, but still showing the beauty that she is. Then the other side of her story. The beautiful girl who eventually captured the eye and heart of the prince and goes on to live happily ever after. It occurred to me early on in the design process that this could be reflected within the one portrait image of her character. The two sides of the story split down the middle. Then it was just a case of making it work and balance as a single image while still showing that inner beauty that we all have come to love about Cinderella’s character.

I’m pleased with how it turned out. See how the image came together in the video below…

Flyer Design

Programme Cover

Programme Inner – Spot The Difference

The Pumpkin

The T Shirt Designs

Stage Set Design

The other part of the production that I was involved with was to make the stage set images which were projected onto the back of the stage during the performance. I didn’t want to over complicate the designs and tried to keep them as simple and classic looking as possible. They were a whole lot of fun to put together and they worked brilliantly for each of the individual scenes. Projection technology is getting better and better and it is amazing what you can do with performance spaces these days.

City Slither Boi Seth

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Character Illustration

He might be a snake, but he is the best snake in town. Seth is his name and he’s all sorts of urban cool. Bang into his Hip Hop. B’ Boy exsssssssssssssstraordinaire. Slithers here, slithers there and does a mean moon walk. He truly is the king of all snakes.

OK, it’s becoming a major obsession, but I am fascinated by multiple versions of one image. To be honest, I’m only really scratching the surface. Imagine the colourways that could exist if you just kept exploring. Imagine a slight graphic change and then starting all over again. Imagine that again, and again… Mind boggling.

This is a quick illustration in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on the iPad Pro. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Initial image is the original illustration followed by subsequent colour versions.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Top Bun City Prince – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Top Bun City Prince

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This guy is a human. His nickname is The Top Bun City Prince. His real name is Skip Warrington. He looks out for everyone, both human and machine. He can fix just about anything and is an adept hunter. Extremely effective with a sling or a bow and arrow. He usually travels with a dog, a tough looking springer spaniel named Jess.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Humanoid Cyborg System CCC_333 – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Humanoid Cyborg System CCC_333

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This CCC unit is an early humanoid prototype. Originally built to help in kitchens and perform basic catering functions. This one got a major upgrade 5 years into its service and can now cook just about every known dish in existence. It is particularly skilled in the brewing and distilling of alcoholic beverages. It is affectionately known as Bubble and Squeak.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

See how the illustration came together in the video below.

Initial Procreate Illustration

Colour Variations

Finished Illustration Mastered in Photoshop

Colour Variations of Finished Image

City Cyborg Renegade – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

City Cyborg Renegade

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This character is called Scoop. He used to be a government cyborg and had a specific function. His job was to round up trouble causers and rebel factions intent on causing specific insurrections, specially skilled in security preventing government transport disruption. Usually food haulage or credit, gems and bullion transportation. His success rate was 100%.

That said, he was turned by a highly skilled human rebel operative called Mouse. Taken out by an EMP Drone during his last operation, and reprogrammed to help in the hijacking of the things he used to protect. He still has a 100% success rate.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Post Apocalyptic Utopia – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Post Apocalyptic Utopia

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

Cyborg Medic, serial number 108-C9-XX. This humanoid unit has the long nickname of ‘Post Apocalyptic Utopia’, but is mostly referred to as PAU. (Pronounced ‘pow’). It is an extremely adept surgeon. It does however have rather an austere bedside manner. That said, it is known to make really bad dad jokes in order to put its patients more at ease. This has varied success rates.

It works in the heart of the city looking after rebel factions who have been injured fighting against government battle droids.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Procreate initial illustration and colour variations

Photoshop finished illustration and colour variations

With Any Luck – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

With Any Luck

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

In a world where nothing is what it seems, keeping your perspective and having a good grasp on what is real and what isn’t, is the best function you can have.

This character is an ageing cyborg who’s primary function is to serve as a bridge between reality and cyberspace for its masters. If you own one of these biomechanical constructs, it will help you navigate between augmented reality and reality. They tend to be safe and extremely reliable. This one is called ‘Bridget’!

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Clifton B Boy

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When I was a kid I used to frequent a place that was locally known as ‘Browns Subway’ near Clifton in Nottingham. So called, as the underpass was located quite close to a bakery called ‘Browns Bakery’ on Abbeyfield Road. These subways were a hub of creativity for any budding graffiti artist. As far as I am aware, they still are. The bakery however, has long gone.

When the graffiti that we associate with Hip Hop culture first came to prominence in Britain in the early to mid 80’s, I was a young lad growing up in Nottingham. At 14 years old I was just beginning to truly find myself and fathom out what it was that made me tick. I was particularly interested in the breakdance scene and listened to all manner of electro Hip Hop. Especially the STREET SOUND ELECTRO set of albums. I also fully immersed myself in the emerging street art scene. Dazzled by the huge, bright typographical scrawls and stylised characters that came along with the culture, I started out on a journey that would end up influencing my artwork to this day.

This character is called ‘Clifton B Boy’ and is a little nod towards those early days of influence.

At some point soon I will da a more comprehensive post regarding Browns Subway, as I have some brilliant old photo’s of the graffiti in that subway from way back in the mid 80’s to the early 90’s.

Check out the YouTube video at the bottom of this post to see how this character came together.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Enzo Valentino – Character Illustration

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A recent illustration of a character that I sketched on a spare piece of envelope while on a conference call. I photographed the sketch and took it into Procreate on the iPad and embellished it with colour and texture. Using a limited colour palette of reds and blues, I went on a bit of a creative journey and ended up with this character, which I ended up calling, Enzo Valentino. I also ended up creating two or three symmetry version also, which has been another of my recent obsessions in the creative process.

Check out the video below for how this character came together.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

333 – Three lots of the Magic Number

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For a number of years now I have been including the number 333 in the images that I create. Sometimes subtly, other times quite blatantly. Some images will include the number as digits, other times it will be a series of dots or marks. Three lots of three dots, or three lots of three marks.

One of the reasons I started to do this was because I noticed that the number had started occurring over and over again in my life. More or less wherever I looked.  It would appear within sequences of numbers, printed on packaging, on car number plates, every time I looked at the clock etc. In fact it still occurs in my life sporadically. I am not necessarily a superstitious person, but this reoccurrence fascinated me. So I started to incorporate it into the imagery that I produce.

After having done a scant bit of research on Google, it turns out that the number is considered auspicious and could mean a great many things.

At times it is referred to as the ‘Angel Number’. Some say that the number 333 can also encourage us to put our plans into action or indeed let our personal strength be our guide. Apparently, it is a number that can encourage us to trust ourselves and our own intuition and is largely connected with creativity, optimism, growth and joy. It is also said to be a catalyst for positive change denoting a period of self fulfilment where one might strengthen ones connection with the physical universe.

As we all know, because De La Soul sung about it back in 1989, 3 is indeed the magic number. By numerous accounts the number 3 is a divine number, certainly if we think about it in terms of the Trinity of gods in Christianity (The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost). It also crops up many times in biblical scriptures in a positive way. In the Hindu belief system there are three main gods also (Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva). And, if that’s too spiritual for you, we could think about the number 3 where our physical being is concerned when we talk about the (Mind, Body and Spirit). The number 333 is also connected to the idea of strong or positive communication within relationships.

Obviously, I was delighted to discover all these things about the number and it sat very well with me and my own convictions. So this is why I decided to incorporate the number into my creativity.

Look out for it in my images in the future and see if you can spot where I have placed this auspicious set of digits. Remember, it could be the physical numbers or a repeat in occurrence of a graphic.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Peyton Orme

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Digital Character Illustration

As ever, I love to produce multiple version of some of the images that I create, and sometimes characters just spring up form nowhere. This character fell out of my head and onto the iPad screen in Procreate while I was semi watching Star Wars the other day. He’s some kind of Goblin Prince. A real friendly one at that. He travels a lot and likes to watch the folly of humans. Sometimes laughing out loud at their antics. He quickly disappears if anyone hears his belly laughter. Maybe you’ve heard him before?!

Using a limited colour palette, of mainly blues and reds, (a swatch I seem to be favouring at the moment) I added depth and texture to the simple line character I had drawn. After I had finished in Procreate I took the imagery over to Photoshop and added extra textures and elements over these the multiple versions. I love this way of working, between these two brilliant applications.

I like how this character turned out.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Mind Jazz – Jason Ginnelly

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I was recently contacted by a lovely chap called Jason Ginnelly, who asked me to design the book cover for his up and coming publication of poems and prose. I really enjoyed designing this book cover and made sure that Jason was completely involved with the design process from the beginning, right to the end. The resulting cover very much reflects Jason’s personality and equally, the contents of this lovely book. This was a self publication project and it was important for me to get the right result for Jason, understanding what a hugely personal project this was.

You can get you own copy here: Mind Jazz

See a brief synopsis below…

Mind Jazz is a riff on reality and the nonsensical rhubarb we all encounter every day. It takes us on a journey through experiences and emotions, from our parents to love, loneliness to depression, to joy and laughter.
Encapsulating life in all its sadness, surrealism and silliness. Mind Jazz reveals life’s light and shade, its blacks. whites and greys with its serious heft beside the topsy turvy fanciful fluff that provides the mood music to our loves.

 

 

MYRIAD FRONTIERS – Future Gaming Concept

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MYRIAD FRONTIERS

Concept art and idea based on future gaming.

© EMELBI 2022 – All Rights Reserved

Portrait illustrations based on the concept that we will soon live in a world where gamers will be able to connect to internet streamed game systems using cybernetics and control their digital environments in real time. Users would have a small set of surgical implant modifications. These modifications would allow them to connect to the gaming domain at any time. There would be multiple games to choose from, each with vast amounts of choice regarding gameplay. The game platforms would be constantly transmitted over the internet and/or other broadcast mechanisms. Gamers would possess heightened perceptions via their mods which would give them the ability to tap into an array of alternative existences. Pressure sensitive body suits would also enhance physical interaction within gameplay allowing users to physically interact with other digital avatars, creatures and habitats.

Optional layers of engagement would grant gamers the opportunity to encounter either a fully immersive experience, or alternatively, exist in a more augmented reality. If the gamer’s preference was a fully immersive experience, they would be rendered motionless and be in a sleep-like state in the real world. Those that choose the augmented reality gaming experience would interact with digital gameplay in waking reality. Gamers could have both experiences within the same game play at different times, where they would encounter multiple challenges and levels in which they could achieve a set of outlined goals and gain digital mods or tokens. All modes of gameplay would give gamers the opportunity to unlock vast layers of functionality and help them build and progress. 

 Gamers are simply known as, ‘Myriad’.

Check out the YouTube Video below for the illustration process.

Jazz Pizzazz

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This is a recent illustration created in Procreate on the ipad and finished in Photoshop on the iMac. I love working between these two platforms. It’s a real organic process much of the time and a slightly different way of working than I am used to. That said, it is quickly becoming one of my favourite ways of creating striking graphics and laying down ideas for numerous projects.

Here are a few different treatments of the same character. As I have mentioned many times before, I am fascinated by the infinite possibilities of how one image can be manipulated. The many different ways one can arrive at either a slightly different or vastly contrasting outcome. Something as simple as a subtle colour change can present a distinctive mood and change an overall feel to an image. The possibilities are literally endless. Exciting stuff.

The YouTube video at the bottom of the page shows how this character was put together.

 

The Laughing Boy Project

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I was recently invited to collaborate on ‘The Laughing Boy Project’ by the artist and photographer Hersley Casero. Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Dumaguete City, Philippines.

He and his partner Toulla contacted me through Instagram just before Christmas and asked if I would like to create  my version of The Laughing Boy.
The invite came at a time when I was looking to get involved in more collaborations with other creatives, so the timing of this invite was spot on.

The Laughing Boy Project is a positive ongoing project that advocates the freedom of self expression through art. Art collaborations can be a powerful tool. Connecting people and ideas, towards positive change, on a global scale.

I really enjoyed making this image as my contribution to the project. You can see how it was made as I also put together a YouTube video of the digital illustration process, which you can see below.

To find out more information about The Laughing Boy Project, you can visit www.hersleycasero.com/ or check out the Instagram page to see all the collaborations so far instagram.com/laughingboyproject/

The image I made was hand drawn, scanned and then worked on in Adobe Photoshop adding textures, colour and other graphic elements to arrive at the finished outcome.

Below is the final digital illustration outcome along with the initial hand drawn illustration.

Super Quick Illustration

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My wife asked me to do a quick continuous line illustration for a presentation she’s doing over Zoom. It had to be a self portrait and done quickly, almost without thinking. (Fig 1) She then asked me to take that initial drawing and embellish it with texture shading and form etc. Again, I had to make these graphic additions really quickly. (Fig 2) I then photographed the resulting image on my iPhone 11 Pro, sent it to my iMac and ran it through the usual clean up process eventually converting it to a vector graphic so that the line was nice and clean. (Fig 3)

Then in record time gave it my usual graphic, texture and colour treatment to get a finished outcome. Very rough, and extremely quickly. I quite like the outcome. (Fig 4)

This whole process was done in about 40 minutes.

What I most love about the creative process though, is that fact that this image didn’t exist when I woke up this morning. Out of necessity; helping my wife out with a graphic she needed, I now have this little illustration. I love what I do.

Here are some other versions of the finished image after having run them through the filters in the app RNI Films on my iPhone 11 Pro. Just for a bit of variety.

Symmetry and Negative Space

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A quick exploration of negative space and assumed negative space within this symmetrical image of a dude on a BMX. I love how art and design can take you on a journey beyond the obvious just by using colour and form. I’ve always been fascinated in the exploration of colour relationships and how colour can completely change to mood of an image, while fundamentally, the structure of the image or graphic stays exactly the same. Of course playing with these structure and exploring their dynamics usually leads to new and fresh ideas and keeps the creative juices flowing.

All Stars Performing Arts Presents ANNIE 2017

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I recently designed the ANNIE posters, flyers and social media promotional material for the forthcoming summer show by the All Stars Performing Arts school based in West Yorkshire. The show will take place at the Bradford Play House where tickets can be purchased via the Box Office.

Set in 1930s New York during the Great Depression, brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Annie’s luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas with the famous billionaire Oliver Warbucks, at his grand Manhattan residence. Mr Warbucks is determined to find Annie’s parents. However, the spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search… With its multiple Tony winning book and score, this stunning new production includes the unforgettable songs Hard Knock Life, Easy Street, and Tomorrow. Annie is a show for all the family to enjoy! So don’t miss the All Stars perform it! You can bet your bottom dollar you’ll love it!

THE GIFt 2

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Been mucking around with a couple more GIF experiments.
They are always fun to put together. These ones are probably too image heavy, but I quite like them all the same.
They may take a while to load due to this.

EMELBI_THeGIFt

EMELBI_BETSIE

Salendine Nook High School – ‘I CAN’ Street Graphics Project.

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In 2013, Salendine Nook High School won the Guardian Newspaper’s ‘School We’d Like’ competition and was awarded £5000 in prize money to revamp the Blue Tunnel, which is a key linking walkway between different buildings in the school. See the initial post from The Guardian… The Guardian – Salendine Nook: graffiti art project transforms old walkway.

Creative Art Workshops

I was approached by the school in the summer of 2013 and was asked to facilitate a creative project consisting of a series of workshops based around the title ‘I CAN’. These workshops began in autumn term 2013 and ran through to March 2014.

The initial workshops explored the history and culture of street art and graffiti and looked at the myriad of artists whose work adorns the street of the world’s urban spaces. Particular focus was placed upon methods, techniques, colour use, image placement and characteristics concerning each individual artist’s approach and style.
We looked at everything from the huge typographic scrawls and intricate lettering styles of graffiti and the continued development and evolution of graffiti culture, to Wheat Paste posting, the Knit The City phenomenon, Banksy, The London Police, Shepard Fairey and many more.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

The creative workshops were designed to produce a range of strong graphics, which were either hand drawn, painted, developed from photographic elements, made using collage techniques and indeed a mixture of all these modes. Strong emphasis was placed on different drawing techniques designed to loosen up the creative process and produce an unexpected quirkiness in the resulting graphics.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Students also explored the use of the light box to trace images in order to develop quick and strong graphic styles and to experiment with composition. There was also an emphasis on the significance of mark making, constructing textures using paint splats, printing with inked bubble wrap and other interesting found materials.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Sponged ink marks and small hand drawn elements like arrows, swirls, cross-hatching and all sorts of shapes and patterns were created in the exploratory process.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Out of the mass of graphics that were produced in the workshops, the students started to get a real and definite idea about which images they wanted to use in their final artworks.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

The imagery was then scanned at high resolution and prepared for layering and colouring using Photoshop CS6. This allowed the creative process to be further investigated resulting in the impacting and beautiful graphics that were produced in the student’s final pieces.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

The project was a wonderful journey of creativity from beginning to end and a lot of fun was had along the way.

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

Creative Art Workshops

I think the resulting artworks speak for themselves.

Creative Art Workshops

Check out the Guardian article here… The Guardian – How street art can boost learning and community engagement in schools.

This was a super project commissioned by the Guardian and funded by Zurich Municipal.

The GIFt

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I have been having some fun messing around with animated Gif’s.

I think they still have their pace in the grand scheme of things.Good fun and quick to create!

I will post some more soon.

EMELBI_123+

‘I Can’ Project – Salendine Nook High School, Huddersfield.

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Emerging artwork and graphics from the ‘I Can’ blue tunnel project at Salendine Nook High School, Huddersfield. There are some fabulous images being created, both in the form of digital graphics and hand drawn illustrations. I’m working with a great set of students who are producing some outstanding artwork in this urban street art regeneration project. More to come soon…

Creative Art Workshops

Etheridge – Illustration Portrait

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Here is a commission that I have just finished.
These portraits have many significant messages hidden within the artwork.
This one was great fun to do.

Artwork printed as a giclée print onto a box canvas.

Etheridge - Illustration Portrait
FiandCanvas

Just Bea’

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This is a quick tablet drawing/illustration of my little girl.
She watches me like a hawk when I am doing anything arty or creative.
We have been doing some artwork together which I will post up at some point.
She’s really rather good too.

EMELBI - Just Bea'

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