I’ve been exploring Inkscape a bit more recently. On the back of the pop art images I did previously for Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, I found that I can replace a photograph with an unshaded version with a restricted colour palette.
Simple logos
There are a few names for this style of image, Minimalist Vector Portraiture or Faceless Flat Illustration are two that AI gave me.
On the face of it, it’s a simple enough process. You trace over an image to make shapes that you colour in. This is the sort of thing you could also do with paper and scissors, but using a computer means you can change the colours when you like.
I used a function called ‘Colour Picker’ that’s part of MS PowerToys to get the correct colours. I choose a pixel on an image (in this case the original photo) and the hex code for that area is shown. Then I used that as the colour for whatever I’m making. For areas like John’s face and his hair I selected a representative colour.
For a design that can go on RedBubble I added a short quote from John Kearns’ time on Taskmaster.
Taskmaster
John was on the 14th series of Taskmaster, a show I have written about previously. Of that cast, I knew Dara Ó Briain and Sarah Millican. Fern Brady, John Kearns and Munya Chawawa were unknowns.
This was one of the best casts in the show’s history; the last three series (19, 20, and 21) have all been top notch. Ó Briain and Millican were the ‘established anchors’ on the panel. This gave the younger, less well known, members the freedom to go their own way. They could do this safe in the knowledge that the others on the panel – and Greg, Little Alex Horne and the crew – would be on hand to provide scaffolding and support for them.
John in particular seemed to struggle with the show, and with the concept of having fun. At one point, Greg suggested that John ‘processes fun in a different way to the rest of us’. The prize tasks in particular gave him some trouble, until he hit the jackpot with his final prize, a fridge magnet of Jet from Gladiators.
The exchange leading up to the reveal of the prize started with John asking Greg: “Do you own a fridge?”
“I’m not being arrogant,” replied Greg. “I have three fridges.” This got a ‘wooo!’ from the audience. It was quickly established that Greg had no magnets on his fridges, maybe he would like a Jet from Galdiators magnet. Greg said he would, and gave John top marks.
To go with John’s face, the first line from the exchange is included. I opted for the Badhorse font for this. The theme of the series 14 was ‘circus’, this is a suitable font that is also very clear.
The t-shirt is available in the Heath Way Prints shop. You can also get a fridge magnet that asks ‘Do you own a fridge?’ for a fridge-based existential crisis.
The new face of Heath Way Prints
Up until now I’ve used a cartoonised version of an old photo of me as the ‘face’ of Heath Way Prints. I’ve now replaced ‘handsome Dave’, as I called him, with the minimalist version of a recent photo that Mrs S took1.
For the hair, I used two colours. Since I’m greying at the temples, two grey bands work there. My main colour is dark brown, so that’s what I used for the top of my head.
- The main purpose was to update my listing on the background artist agency I’ve been registered with for a year. No work yet, but there’s always hope. ↩︎
Leave a Reply