Original photo and inspiration. Click to enlarge.
Window Shopping is my latest illustration based on my own photography. Up until this point, I have been basing my illustrations off of existing photographs that I have in my collection. For Window Shopping, I decided I wanted to set up a photo shoot with a model, my dear and lovely coworker Tess Ewing, in the downtown Lancaster area and have a little more creative control of the composition and leave a little bit less to chance.
The shoot was in December last year, on an improbably warm and mild day. While this was convenient for shooting (no red noses or watering eyes from the cold to be found), it didn't convey the mood I was trying to achieve which was a two parts romantic, one part Christmas/winter wonderland.
Just the idea of window shopping is so vintage and romantic. To steal from the Gilmore Girls:
It'll be like we're in an old movie, y'know? Walking around, window-shopping like Roz Russell and Ava Gardner on Fifth Avenue.
I didn't have a specific shop or window display in mind when we started the shoot; we took photos in front of Prince Street Cafe, the Fulton Theater, and Central Market to name a few local landmarks, but we ultimately ended up on gallery row in front of Liz Hess's gallery. Liz Hess is one of my favorite artists in the Lancaster area, and you can see more of her beautiful paintings here.
As I was working, I took a series of screenshots so that you could see the evolution of the illustration and a little bit of my work in progress in Adobe Illustrator.
If you are interested in viewing my illustrations up close, I will be exhibiting them during the month of May at the Framing Concept on North Prince Street. The opening reception is on May 6th at 5pm. You can learn more about the exhibit and reception here.
Hope to see you there and thanks for reading!