Procreate InDesign After writing Ethan Marr’s profile, my goal with the portrait was to both convey new information from my interview that didn’t make it into the profile, and to emphasize Ethan’s inquisitive, analytical nature which the writing conveyed.
Ethan’s merman persona was born out of his love of sweaters. He has often been compared to sockeye salmon, an animal which looks permanently clad in knit. The water association, as well as his pose, also emphasizes his calm and inquisitive nature. The orange of his sweater brings back the warmth of his character to the illustration.
The Process
Part of the limitation of this work was using only four colors that were lifted from a photo we captured. I found this wall hanging in a cafe on my way to the studio and thought the colors would be fantastic for a sockeye salmon inspired character.
I first sketched Ethan from life, then experimented with simplifying his features. Next I sketched sockeye salmon and experimented with how to combine Ethan’s features with the fish’s.
To create a composition, I used a technique from Andrew Loomis called informal subdivision. I did this by first creating an irregular grid, and then developing my image on top of this. By aligning elements this way, I created visually balanced yet interesting compositions.