Around the World in 14 days

Sometimes you don't need to leave the house to travel. You can watch the travel channel, look through old photo albums, or exchange letters with a pen pal from overseas, although, sadly, that last one seems to be fading away. The internet is another way to travel, but when all is said and done, there is no replacement for the real thing. Instead, all of the above should inspire one to make plans and actually get out there.

As an illustrator, I have the option of drawing or painting far away places, which is another form of stay at home travel. Researching a foreign port, learning about new places, and seeing a hint of their beauty is also very inspirational. One of the benefits of Freelancing is that I never know what a client may want from me, and sometimes that takes me in unexpected directions.

Recently, Freelancing took me around the world... in only 14 days!



Yes, a client came to me to provide artwork for an Annual Report, which is a big deal for an illustrator. Unfortunately, by the time we decided I would illustrate ports from around th globe, we had about two weeks left until the artwork had to go to the designer, and the print ready files go to the printers!!

Thus began an incredible challenge that kept me from sleeping for two weeks, but also kept me very inspired and excited. Thanks to my well-travelled client, I starting learning about places I had never been to, and some I only knew very little about.



I'm not going to show you everything I did, because I ended up doing 10 or 11 illustrations in those two weeks, and several of them were two page spreads. However, I will share a few with you, and maybe even inspire you to learn more about these places, or encourage you to one day visit.

Cheers, JOHN :0)


PS The illustrations above are London, Venice, and Istanbul... although you probably already guessed that. :0)

PSS Artwork belongs to the American Club, so don't even think of borrowing it.

On my iPod? Fish, Sunsets on Empire