A Postcard Project

Grand Canyon

Postcard

A lettering and illustration project to create a postcard featuring the Grand Canyon

The Project

The Idea

This began as an assignment from a mentor and much of my initial thoughts included focusing on an illustration along with the lettering.

I wanted to include a human element because it’s been a recent focus of mine to develop my skills in drawing the human form. I also thought it important to include a vista from the Grand Canyon and as I looked through many photos and did research, I found I loved the idea of including the river.

2023

The Details

Size | Color | Tools

This began as a postcard so the sizing was given as a 4″x6″ card with a 1/4″ bleed.

The tools I used for this project were pencil and paper, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

From Beginning To End:

The Process

Process

Step one

Step 1: Ideation | Thumbnails

I created two different composition ideas for my initial sketches. In the end, I combined aspects of each. I loved the diagonals of one but also loved incorporating a person in the other. I also wasn’t in love with the word, Explore. These things though I hashed out once the lettering was digitized.

Process

Step three

Step 2: Digitize

As I mentioned I first started with the Explore version but wasn’t loving the use of the word in the composition. I created the illustration and worked on composing it all together.

Process

Step Four

Step 4: Finalize

Most of my letting art in this project makes it’s way to Photoshop. In photoshop I copy of layers and begin adding fine detail to the lettering and illustration. Usually this means light, shadow, textures, line work, and any effects like noise layers, drop shadows or bevels that I didn’t do in Illustrator. Subtle textures were a big inclusion here.ar.