Simple Illustration style

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framing

Simple Illustration Style

Ultimate style for those who love minimalist cool. These portraits distil the face down to the simplest of lines. Soothing flat colours are then used to fill the canvas with colour.

How we work with you to create your simple illustration style portrait

Step 1 - The photo
The first step will be for us to take a look at your photo and make sure we can work with it. For the best results we need to work from a clear, evenly lit and in focus photo. The person's face should fill up most of the actual photo and the photo be taken from straight on. The subject should not be smiling, or at least not showing their teeth, as this tends to distort the shape of the face. The examples of photos opposite are ideal and should give you a good idea of what we are looking for. With this style we can actually work from a passport photo. See examples of the sort of photo we need to create the best possible portrait.
Once we have a photo we can work with, we will then move on to address the composition of the portrait - essentially where the head sits within the canvas. The way we do this is to send you a number of crops of the photograph. Some will be close crops, concentrating very much on the face, with others showing more of the shoulders as well. To achieve the iconic look a square crop really works best.

Step 2 - The colours
Having decided with you on the crop to use, we would then move on to the issue of colours and background.
Colours
With this style we use a palette of what we describe as strong pastel colours. The way we tend to work, is to send you a number of Simple Illustration style portraits we have done to consider for colour combinations. It could be that you like one of the colour combinations as it is, or it may be that there are certain colours you are after to fit in with your interior. Either way, you let us know which colours appeal to you and we take it from there - do remember too that at the draft stage, as well as showing you the picture in your chosen colour combination, we will also show the picture to you in a variety of colourways that the artist feels also work well.
Background
We offer a choice of three background styles - Flat Colour, Patterned and Photographic. Examples of these can be seen opposite. You let us know which you would like and we will show examples in that style.
With the photographic backgrounds, you can either use our own for no additional charge, or for an additional £50.00 (to cover the additional time needed) - send in your own photos and have us work with these.

Step 3 - Your portrait
About 1-2 weeks or so later, we would then email you back a first draft of the picture, using the colours you have chosen, but also showing you how it would look using a number of other colour combinations. This gives you the opportunity to feedback to us and to decide on the picture that you really want, before anything is printed.
These pictures are finished as a dye sublimation print on canvas. This process gives you a wonderful and very contemporary matt finish with the grain of the canvas showing through slightly. This means no sheen to distract the viewer from the image and looks fantastic when it's just stretched around a wooden frame and hung on the wall.
Only when you are completely happy with the portrait is it then framed according to your request, packed up and despatched to you.

In all the process should take about 4 weeks.

Which size canvas should you choose?
Of all the styles we have, this is one that works well even at the smallest 40cm x 40cm size. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that a little bit of scale does suit these portraits.
Because the artwork is created by a Graphic artist and the canvas is then printed, the bulk of the cost for us, is the creative development (which remains the same for either a small or large portrait) rather than the material cost of the canvas and stretcher bars. For this reason the bigger canvases can in a way be though of as better value. If you look at the table below you can see how a small jump in price, gets you a huge leap in size.
Our recommended size in this style is 40cm x 40cm or above.