Cara Barbour

Illustration BDes (Hons)

My illustrations often blur the line between reality and the imaginary- I love to highlight the magic, fun and beauty that can be found in everyday moments.

About

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My illustration style ranges from creating playful characters with a child-like whimsical charm, to work that explores deeper themes of identity and mental health. I take a lot of inspiration from the world around me, but I love to incorporate elements of magic and imagination into my work too! 

Throughout my degree I have developed skills using various mediums, including riso-printing, painting, screen printing, drawing and digital work. My favourite way to produce work is through digital software as I love the range of colour that is available to bring my ideas to life. I apply traditional techniques to my work to create interesting textures, providing my illustrations with a painterly / ‘hand-drawn’ style, despite them being created digitally. 

During my time at DJCAD I have created work aimed across various industry specialisms, such as editorial work, publishing, advertising and merchandising. Despite the various forms and styles my work can take, I always aim to create work that tells a story as well as being well-composed and visually pleasing.

Penguin Books Cover

Illustrated Book cover of James and the Giant peach- shows giant peach floating in the water with James, worm, centipede, ladybug, spider and grasshopper smiling standing on top of it. The title 'James and the Giant Peach' is written in the clouds.

For this brief, I created an illustrated cover of Roald Dahl's 'James and the Giant Peach'. I created this image digitally, and loved bringing my own interpretations of the original beloved characters to life!

Memoir

I created this illustration based on the six word sentence: 'From above me, crimson memories fall'. I was inspired by the imagery of a darkroom and interpreted the 'falling crimson memories' as a line of hanging photographs falling and scattering across the room. I used a limited colour pallet to create this illustration and focused on creating a glowy gradient to evoke the high contrast red lighting of a darkroom

I created this illustration based on the six word sentence: 'From above me, crimson memories fall'. I was inspired by the imagery of a darkroom and interpreted the 'falling crimson memories' as a line of hanging photographs falling and scattering across the room. I used a limited colour pallet to create this illustration and focused on creating a glowy gradient to evoke the high contrast red lighting of a darkroom.

Earning Peace

image shows a spread of a printed zine. the image on the left shows a woman in fetal position. her curly hair merges into the background which shows swirling galaxies that surround the figure. there are big and small stars of varying sizes and shapes that surround the figure. the image on the left shows a hand at the bottom of the page, reaching out as a hand above dangles a star on a string above it. the string wraps around the above hand's finger, palm and wrist. the images are line drawings shaded light

This is a spread from a riso-printed zine I made called 'Earning Peace'. This was a personal project that explored varying perspectives of peace, and whether or not peace is something we should have to earn. The imagery on the left page depicts a cosmic interpretation of the afterlife, inspired by the idea that peace is something that is often seen as being reserved for an alternative timeline, which many people may place a higher value on than making space for peace in their current lives. In the right image I took inspiration from Michaelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam' to illustrate peace being handed down from a higher being.

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