100Days Illustration Challenge
The best of my 100Days illustrations: I drew one friend every day for 100 days. No excuses and no interruptions. The challenge took me on a long personal journey of appreciating the people around me, my friends, family. On a professional level, I discovered new styles, techniques and visual designs. I ended up with various styles but one thing is obvious: colors were used in abundance.
Those portraits represent my childhood friends but also the ones I met in my adulthood. I developed this style around the end of my challenge. I love capturing their deepest expression of their inner self in my illustrations.
The minimalism of this style allowed me to use bold colours and few brushes. I have to admit those portraits were done in my busy days when I did not have much time for this personal challenge due to other work projects. However, they ended up being the most popular ones. Probably also because of how attractive the subjects are.Using so few details was the best choice for capturing expressions.
In my free days I had more time for complex illustrations such as the ones bellow. Sometimes, I had no idea which friend to draw so I basically chose them based on what I wanted to do that day. For example, one Sunday I wanted to draw a cute girl on a bike, riding in the park, and I chose a friend form my hometown as reference. Some other days I felt inspired by my photographer friend who loves sports and exploring.
The falling girl in the third illustration above is a friend who has endometriosis: a painful disease which causes awful internal bleeding and might be mistaken for period pain. Usually it’s very hard to diagnose and after 10 years of eternal pain she was finally diagnosed with it and got operated. However, this disease can re-occur but for a period of time she can feel liberated from this pain. I also wanted to raise awareness of this disease that usually is ignored and misdiagnosed.
In the ones above and bellow I played a bit with a more formal UI kind of illustration. I initially started doing lots of informational illustrations for websites and I still enjoy this style.
These 3 above are my siblings: my brother who loves getting lost in trail running, my very sympathetic older sister who is the best nurse in the world, and my other older sister who is the best pianist in the galaxy.
Some of my friends are very sporty and I love that about them
Now, those above are my band mates (the last one is me). Those guys were so much fun to play music with.
Everyone enjoys some riding. The last one is actually me as a kid. Sometimes I drew myself in this challenge since I am my own friend as well (or to be honest, I think at that time I ran out of friends to draw).
In those above I tried a style that I have never used before: no shadows or brushes (at least in the first two). The one on the left is a friend who does amazing jewels.
I think when I did those running friends I was obsessed with circles and strident colors. I love the style though. The first two is a couple and very prolific runners. The third one is the best ultra trail runner I know and he ran an ultra marathon on a treadmill for 12 hours (without any break) to raise money for Hospice.
Some color palettes that I loved so much. I often got my inspiration from nature photography on Pinterest.
Those guys love anime and I drew them in this style. In high school anime style was the only one I tried. The dutch friend on the left speaks some Japanese (even went to Japan) and is the chillest dude ever. Then in the middle you have Joao who actually owns a motor like that one and then we have mister Deniz, a fine gentleman who speaks the Queen's english. He loves the The Boondocks.
Some girlfriends with their hobbies. The last one is an avid reader.
Those ones represent some scenes from the domestic life of my brother who happens to be a successful father of two, an avid runner and master of errands.
Another simple style I loved playing with. The guy on the left is an avid player of historical games, loves stuff that I avoided in school (such as math and physics), then we have the illustration of the french girl Gabrielle who could easily be on the package of a french cream brand. The last guy is an avid fan of barefoot lifestyle and sports some amazing Vibram Fivefingers shoes.
Those are some very complex illustrations. For the one on the left I think I spent roughly 8 hours. Those are some fine nature lover friends.
Two of my friends that work in the food industry and the last one is also an illustrator who was expecting a cute baby at the time I drew this.
These two are my parents. They met in a train on the morning commute. My father searched for her 2 weeks after the first tike they met. He took the same train every day until she finally took the same one (she was working shifts). My father told me that when he entered the wagon he saw a beautiful girl reading wearing nurse clothes and reading a book. Then on the second image we have my mom's perspective: she just saw a handsome guy sporting a long black coat and a mysterious fragrance. I chose to end my 100 Days Challenge with them since they are 2 friends of mine that played such an important role in my life.
Hope you enjoyed scrolling my personal challenge. The rest of the illustrations can be found on my instagram as well as personalised description that each friend got along with the artwork. Thanks to this challenge I pushed myself to never go to sleep before I created something meaningful and also got me new clients. It is a good way to build your portfolio. Just choose something interesting for both you and your audience.
