EMELBI

Digital Artist and Illustrator

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Gabriel Barak IV – Character Illustration

3rd February 2023 By EMELBI

Character and Portrait Technique

Currently looking at a new technique of making portrait images. I have dabbled with this process before and want to refine it. So you will be seeing much more of this style in the future. Using the procreate app and a limited set of brushes, this type of image is a process of layering texture from simple beginnings. Much like you would if you were making an oil painting or an acrylic painting on canvas. There was no reference material for this character. Gabriel Barak IV came out of my head. But this is a process I am going to use more and more often from now on when looking at digital portraiture in general. An exciting new journey.

Again, as ever, I have explored multiple colour grades and texture finishes to this images, ever fascinated by multiple outcomes of a single image.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Peyton Orme

1st February 2023 By EMELBI

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

26th January 2023 By EMELBI

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.

 

 

East Ardsley Primary School – Space Illustration Workshop with EMELBI

24th January 2023 By EMELBI

One of the most important skills in art, is drawing. You can create wildernesses, vast landscape, detailed cities, fabulous creatures and just about anything your imagination can muster. Allowing yourself to be free to ‘JUST DRAW’, no matter where it takes you, is a freeing experience and it will always throw up surprises in term of what is created.

So many people say to me “I wish I could draw, I’m rubbish at drawing!” and I always ask, “Well, how ofter do you draw?” to which the answer is always either “Never.” or “Not often.” We get good at doing things by doing those things. You will never get good at anything by not doing it. Except perhaps, doing nothing.

This workshop has been devised to make the drawing process really free, where mistakes are encouraged and exploration is the key to making a collaborative piece of art. It’s always fun and the overall effect is fabulous, as a huge pice of cartridge paper is filled with wonderful and incredibly detailed drawings. The workshop is always fun and all the participants are always fully engaged and excited to create more and more.

This particular workshop at East Ardsley Primary School was based on the theme of Space. Below are a set of images taken from the collaborative piece of work that the children created over the course of the day. There are some fantastic characters and wonderfully brilliant and  imaginative spacecraft within this imagery. When you make a process fun, inhibitions always seem to dissipate, leaving you with pure creativity.

The children also took photographs of the collaborative artwork and made digital edits of the imagery using various apps.

Friday Night

20th January 2023 By EMELBI

A recent simple line illustration of my wife. Dozing on a ‘Friday Night’ after a long week.

My wife and I were just chilling out watching a bit of Friday night TV. I looked around and she was absolutely sparked out. So I took a photo of her and made this illustration from the photograph. I love how it turned out. I am a sucker for detail, texture and a multitiue of colours. That said, sometimes it’s nice just to do some simple line work with some muted colours. These can often be the most powerful of images.

The original colour image is the vibrant orange one. I then messed around with it a little and came up with the other colour versions. My favourite being the muted pink version. It’s always nice to explore different colour ways. The colour can make so much difference to the mood and feel of an image.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

MYRIAD FRONTIERS – Future Gaming Concept

8th September 2022 By EMELBI

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

13th April 2021 By EMELBI

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.

 

Geoff McGeoff – Bodaciously Boho

24th February 2021 By EMELBI

This dude, who I have affectionately called Geoff McGeoff, was created on the iPad Pro using Procreate. I was messing around with just one brush. The ‘Syrup’ brush, under the ‘Inking’ menu of brushes. I love hard line illustrations. It’s probably because I have always drawn with pens and markers. This technique in Procreate, using two different colours for the hatching, reminds me a lot of wood cut work. Positive and negative space is apparent in this type of technique.

The beauty of doing this kind of work on the ipad using an Apple Pencil keeps it feeling really organic as if were created with pens on paper, even though it is completely digital. After drawing this BoHo dude I exported the file from Procreate as a PSD document from the iPad into Photoshop on my Mac to further work on the image.

I love the way these two platforms work so well together. It really suits my style and the way in which I work. Such great fun and simple yet bold results. Check out the YouTube video of this image being put together below.

Red Ed – Two Minute Time Lapse Illustration

9th February 2021 By EMELBI

This image was made as part of a new series of two minute time lapse illustrations that I am embarking on for my YouTube Channel. I’ve called this one Red Ed.

As part of this journey, I want to explore a variety of different mediums again and become a bit more exploratory concerning image making. Way back in 1994, I did my Art Foundation where we were encouraged to look at all aspects of creative processes and practices. From Fine Art, Printmaking, Photography, Costume Design, Sculpture…

The list is exhaustive. But it was brilliant and ridiculously informative in terms of enrichment and discovery. One process informed another and thus the understanding of materials became constantly enlightening and ideas flowed in abundance.

It’s extremely easy to get bogged down in one set of processes and stagnate. Due to the fact that I have been working with digital images for so long now, I feel that I need to get in touch with real hands on materials once again and explore mark making in a very real sense. Im looking forward to this journey of discovery and challenging myself to use materials I haven’t used before or indeed materials that I’ve not used for a long time. My aim is to explore a combination and variations of paints, inks, pens, collage, print and whatever other new and interesting materials I can get my hands on. I will still be working digitally and where applicable, I will incorporate the two processes.

Much of my digital artwork starts off as pen and ink drawings and many of the textures I use are hand produced and scanned before using them as part of the digital process. So I am used to creating with real hands on materials, but for many reasons I feel I want to delve a bit deeper into the word of illustration and image making by looking at new techniques and trying out varied approaches to creativity. All of which will hopefully inform and enrich my established creative process. Let face it, it can’t be a bad thing!

365 Sketchbook 2021

3rd February 2021 By EMELBI

I have decided to undertake a 365 sketchbook. An illustration/sketch a day for a whole year. No rules, multiple mediums and any subject. I will draw whatever comes into my head on each particular day. Just for the sheer love of drawing and for the exciting journey of exploration and discovery.

To challenge myself, my first sketchbook has got recycled paper that’s quite thin and acts a little bit like blotting paper. This makes for some interesting ink spreading. When that sketchbook gets filled I will chose something a little bit different to carry on the project.

I will add new images to the gallery as and when I get time to post them up. These are all rough ideas and not finished pieces by any stretch of the imagination, such is the nature of sketchbooking. Some of them may well get turned into artworks, or characters in artworks at some other time.

The Laughing Boy Project

22nd January 2021 By EMELBI

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.

Hands Up For Equality – Silkstone Primary School

24th November 2020 By EMELBI

Here is an art project recently undertaken by the Year 3 children at Silkstone Primary School in Barnsley. They created some interesting illustrations based on ‘Equality’ using the outline of their own arms. The children made their images using words/text to form some strong detail for the inside of their arms. Adding various textures with pens, and colour from a limited colour palette, they came up with these striking graphics. The limited colour palette was used to form a modicum of uniformity throughout the images. The colours are also based on the school logo. This was a great project and I love the energy in the resulting imagery. They’re all so very unique.

Silkstone Primary School was a lovely school to work in. The staff and children were brilliant.

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Unique and Equal – Silkstone Primary School

24th November 2020 By EMELBI

These self-portraits were made by the year 4 children at Silkstone Primary School in Barnsley. This project was a creative experience that brought about some inspiring results. Based on their own portrait images, the children explored the line and structure of their own faces, through a series of drawing techniques. These techniques were devised to examine parts of the face that form the true character of who they are. By paying careful attention to the dominant lines, shading and using a limited colour palette, they formed these portraits over the duration of the workshop. It was brilliant to see how these characters emerged over the course of the day. I was particularly impressed with the strong and bold marks made during the painting process. The best comment of the day: “I didn’t know that I was good at art until today.”

I had a great couple of days working at Silkstone Primary School. A smashing little school. The staff and children were fab.

EMELBI Art Workshops
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Chikket Imps

20th November 2020 By EMELBI

This scrumptious bunch of impish lovelies are part of an ongoing illustrative project. I am interested in the uniformity of the illustrations. I follow a particular set of rules in the creation of each of the characters so that they relate to each other in a very particular way. Also in the way in which they have been placed in the exact same environment. That said, my aim is to make them as different to each other as possible without straying too far from the set of rules I have imposed upon the process. They are a lot of fun to create.

I will be adding more imps as they are created, so check back here for updates, and see how this little family is grow. Each initial drawing gets cleaned up in Adobe Photoshop and converted to an .eps vector file in Adobe Illustrator, after which they all get coloured on Adobe Photoshop. I have made three videos showing the colouring process. These are up on my YouTube Channel. You can find them at the bottom of this page.

 

 

The Christmas Imp

 

 

Super Quick Illustration

9th July 2020 By EMELBI

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.

(Fig 1)
(Fig 2)
(Fig 3)
(Fig 4)

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.

Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Kodak Gold 200 v.4'
Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Agfa RSX II v.2'
Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Agfa Optima 200 v.3 Faded'
Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Agfa Vista 100'

The Unusual Suspects – Nous Trois

9th July 2020 By EMELBI

During this lockdown period I have been getting around to one or two things that I have been meaning to do for ages. There seems to be a lot of stuff that one puts on the back burner until there is time to address whatever it is that needs addressing. Some of it is house maintenance, of which I have done a fair share of late, but also there is always a backlog of things that build up where graphics and file maintenance is concerned. This set of images being one of those jobs that I have eventually got around to doing.

These three characters were images that I painted on large panels of hardboard about 16 years ago. They were about two meters high. The paintings unfortunately are long gone. I don’t even remember what happened to them or whether they still exist in the world? Over the years I have sold stuff and given stuff away. I know these weren’t sold, but where they went is a mystery. Anyway, I only had a set of  low quality .jpeg photographs to prove they ever existed at all. (Fig 1).

I have always loved these three characters. Individually and together as a triptych, as they were meant to be at the very start. I have taken those low quality jpeg images and cleaning them up, running the graphics through Adobe Photoshop and then Adobe Illustrator, using the image trace function to bring them back into the fold so to speak (Fig 2). Now I have got high resolution digital versions of the very same images as they were painted all that time ago.

Not a big job, but time consuming nonetheless. But I’m glad that I got around to doing it.

‘The Unusual Suspects – Nous Trois’ – In Digital (Fig 3).

(Fig 1).

(Fig 2).

(Fig 3).

Symmetry and Negative Space

9th July 2020 By EMELBI

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.

1 Second Photoshop Tutorial

8th July 2020 By EMELBI

I’ve been having a bit of fun with editing today and I had an idea to make the shortest Photoshop, time lapse, illustration tutorial ever! This is an image of mine called Street Angel. I took 30 snap shot images in Photoshop at various stages of the image build and imported them into DaVinci Resolve and set the project frame rate at 30 frames per second. I had to find a real short audio stab too. The result is this one second time lapse tutorial of the build process of this image. All very tongue in cheek obviously! It was fun to do though. Enjoy!

 

All Stars Performing Arts Presents ANNIE 2017

7th March 2017 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

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!

Beardyman – God Damn I Look Fresh

16th November 2016 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

A quick sketch of the Vocal Beatbox and Musical Noise genius Beardyman.
He posted a video this morning on his Facebook page running a little competition for fans like myself to get involved with. I freeze framed the video and made this image from the freeze frame.

Never heard of Beardyman. Why the chuff not? Check him out here… www.beardyman.co.uk

Art and creativity is everywhere. You just need to look for it.

Beardyman - God Damn I Look Fresh

Story Time

11th July 2016 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

I did a little illustration of my daughter having a hot chocolate before bedtime. We like a good bedtime story in our house. My wife and I collect children’s books, so there is always a good story to hand.

Story Time

Story Time

Story Time

Story Time

Story Time

Story Time

Story Time

Sketch It!

22nd June 2016 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Here are a recent collection of images. They are a mixture of hand drawn and digital art play.

Close - Closed - Open

Thaddeus Hibbard

Where There's A Heart There's Its Shadow

Talking Creativity

Secret-7 Cover Graphic

Mountains of Things

Mr. Scoper

18th November 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

His name is Scoper.
He has just been hit by cupid’s arrow and is about to fall in love.
Maybe he will fall over first.
It’s hard to know.

Scoper

Hue Too

21st August 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Face illustration on A2 cartridge paper.
Berol Pen, Quink Ink, Posca Pen & Biro.

Berol Broad Pen, Quink Ink, Posca Pen and Biro Pen face illustration on A2 cartridge paper.
Berol Broad Pen, Quink Ink, Posca Pen and Biro Pen face illustration on A2 cartridge paper.

FeistY

21st August 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Illustration Concept for a poster.

FeistY

Coffee Morning Sketch

21st August 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Coffee Morning x4

Earth Spirit

6th August 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Pen drawing, digitally edited and coloured.

Earth Spirit

Rage Head

15th June 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

 

Illustrative play – Texture versions

Rage Head 01

Rage Head 02

Rage Head 03

Rage Head 04

Endless Running Games – Gareth Durasow

11th June 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

(Book Cover Illustration)
(Book Cover Illustration)

Yes, I am responsible for the cover design, but the real genius is on the inside.

‘Endless Running Games’ is a collection of poems by Gareth Durasow.

Gareth isn’t at all reluctant about eloquently sketching out the grit and feculence of the human condition. He does it with an almost tongue in cheek poignancy. His observations of light juxtaposed by dark are formed anew as if one had never known the two before.
In essence: refined, brilliant, witty and challenging word journeys.

My personal favourites are PRAYERS FOR CAPTAIN AHAB and FOR THE LAST FLAT CAPPER.

Definitely worth a punt but don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself here… http://inpressbooks.co.uk/products/endless-running-games
or here… http://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-Running-Games-Fruit-Bruise/dp/1907133909/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434056268&sr=1-1&keywords=endless+running+games

The Butterfly Effect

29th March 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

The truth is, one thing leads to another.

The Butterfly Effect #1

The Butterfly Effect #2

Gomersal Primary School – Funky Character Designs

19th March 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

A fun workshop working with Key Stage 2 children exploring drawing skills and character development. The children got to try many new drawing skills and techniques before starting on their final images. They were also able to experimented with vibrant coloured inks trying out different mark making techniques before adding the fine detail with POSCA pens once the ink had dried. I love the energy in the finished artworks. They are all very bold, bright and a lot of fun.

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Creative Art Workshops

Self Portrait

5th March 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Yep. That is the shape of my head. From a certain angle of course.

EMELBI Self Portrait

Spectrum

2nd March 2015 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

SPECTRUM

The trick is to be one!

Into the Matrix

28th November 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Pencil drawing and a little iPhone trickery via a couple of apps.
A nod toward the Wachowski Brothers trilogy of films.

EMELBI - Into The Matrix

Pen and Red Crayon

28th November 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Development of some ideas.

My 2 year old daughter decided to add a few of her own lines with red crayon.
I think it adds a certain jenesequa.
I love it when she joins in with the creativity.

EMELBI - Sketches and Doodles

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

7th August 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

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.

Daisy Daisy

4th July 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

iPhoneography and added digital graphic elements.

Daisy Daisy

Beep Beep

26th March 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

I want one of these little cars.

They look like they might be quite a lot of fun to drive.

BEEP BEEP

Youth

25th March 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

New Illustration
Messing with the tablet, textures and using a limited colour palette.

This image is derived from a photo that my father took of me when I was about 8 years old.

EMELBI_YOUTH

Eco Warrior

13th March 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

Also a musician, juggler, stand up comedian, carer,

culinary genius, father, husband, teacher and all round good egg!

Eco Warrior

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

5th March 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

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

Cast Away Your Doubts and Fears

20th February 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

New illustration.

Continuing with a theme of images with positive messages,
where the imagery doesn’t necessarily reflect the message.

Cast Away Your Doubts and Fears

Cast Away Your Doubts and Fears (Detail)

Let There Be Afro

15th February 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

More creativity with my new graphics tablet.

I’m slowly getting used to how this great bit of kit works.

Let There Be Afro

Etheridge – Illustration Portrait

15th February 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

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’

10th February 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

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'

State of Mind

28th January 2014 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

A positive state of mind makes all the difference!
Keep it positive. Keep a smile. Keep being creative.
State of Mind

Oi! RUG

3rd March 2013 By EMELBI Leave a Comment

emelbi Oi banner

‘Oi!’ – Hand Tufted Wool Rug – Collaboration Artwork

Not so long ago I teamed up with Andrew Warburton of Area Rugs www.arearugs.co.uk

Andrew is a highly skilled and experienced carpet maker using hand-tufting methods in the production of his carpets and rugs. He has been designing and making unique and exclusive hand-tufted rugs and carpets since graduating in 1988 with a first class honours degree in carpet design.

He was intrigued by the style and technique of my illustrations and thought that they would transfer well into a carpet design. He had seen an illustration of mine called ‘Oi!’ that he thought would work well and that would be both quirky and impacting. Andrew set to on interpreting the image with pure wool. The results are below.

The design is first sketched out to scale.

The wool is then worked into a type of man-made muslin cloth!

When the tufting process is finished the topside is then cropped to get an even pile.

This is done with a machine that works a little like a lawnmower.

Rugs can also be carved and sculptured by using a carving machine a little like the clippers used to sheer sheep.

When the rug has gone through all these processes it is then backed with a natural latex and hessian.

Rug Entitled: Oi!

Size: 1.7 by 1.2 Metres.

The result was absolutely outstanding. Andrew made an incredibly accurate interpretation of the original design, I’m sure you will agree!

Oi!

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

'Oi!' - Hand Tufted Wool Rug - Collaboration Artwork

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