NEIL STEVENS WORDS & PICTURES
My name is Neil Stevens, a one-man studio illustrator and image maker. These pages are a great chance to show my image work in finer detail and as an add-on to my portfolio site (www.crayonfire.co.uk). It will also be a chance to share other work that has caught my eye. From my love of cycling, music, design, typography, film and illustration. Enjoy!
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Mark Cavendish
By Neil Stevens
I was recently commissioned by Cycling Plus magazine in the UK to create a set of portraits for their 2013 Tour de France special issue. It’s the centenary of the Tour this year and so here we have eight of the contenders for the yellow, green and king of the mountain jerseys with the additon of two tour legends. The idea was to create the portraits in a style not too disimilar to the collectable vintage cards from the 1950’s and 60s. A thoroughly enjoyable commission and will hopefully create more portraits in the near future.
Cycling Plus Magazine Tour de France Cover
by Neil Stevens
Cycling Plus magazine got in touch to ask if I could create a cover for their forthcoming Tour de France centenary special. They wanted a vintage look and feel that would encompass numerous elements relating to the last 100 years of the event. I came up with the idea of a set of different type faces displaying the names of iconic stages, climbs, riders and tour terminology and that as well as a cover could be created as a poster for the magazine’s readers.
Pedal
By Neil Stevens
Often it’s just the simple, zoomed in detail that makes an illustration job the most satisfying. I was recently asked to create an image for a cycling event where the agency just wanted focus on the cog, the shoe and the pedal. Often less is more and although a simple looking image I loved creating the tiny details of the shoe, the stitching, the patterning and the subtle lines going off to the left. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Air
By Neil Stevens
A recent spot illustration taken out of the main image below I created for the Peak District Cycling Festival. It’s nice to often strip back larger images and use that negative space now and then. I’m quite tempted to make this a wall print.
Pele
By Neil Stevens
Following on from the Bobby Charlton illustration from a few weeks ago I’ve now added Pele. Or to give him his full name, Edison Arantes do Nascimento. This is an edition of nine World Cup Legend illustrations i’ve created. All of which will be going up on my main site www.crayonfire.co.uk soon.
Peak District Cycling Festival
By Neil Stevens
I was recently approached to create an illustration for the Peak District Cycling Festival. The event encourages cyclists from all disciplines to participate. So the challenge here was to create an poster image that depicted the leisure cyclist, the downhill mountain bikers and those that love the road bike. As ever there were a few colour alternatives I created, but I was happiest with this palette in the end.
Bobby
By Neil Stevens
A new illustration of Bobby Charlton of Manchester United and England. Every time I have watched old footage, documentaries and interviews with the player I often wish how I would have loved to have seen him play the game live. Always humble, and a true gentleman of the game, he won everything there is to win in football. I stumbled upon this documentary from the BBC that looked back on his career, and it was then that I thought to myself that he really was a one-off. Skill, elegance and grace, a master of his craft.
Garrincha, Joy of the People
by Herbert Richers
The countdown to the World Cup in Brazil next year will no doubt be underway very soon. I’ve been illustrating a set of Brazilian football legends as part of that build-up and stumbled on this great documentary while researching the history of the game within Brazil. This is all about Garrincha, one of Brazil’s finest. It’s always easy to post a link and skim through these clips but it’s well worth setting aside some time to watch this in full as it’s beautifully shot and is accompanied by a great soundtrack.
Poster Man
By Neil Stevens
I’ve been working on a few Victorian London illustrations of late too and here’s a snapshot of one from the set i’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on. It seems that they are all set at night or dusk, hopefully giving them a little extra atmosphere. I quite enjoyed creating the wall posters on this first and went from there, and was originally inspired by John Orlando Parry’s work, The Poster Man.
Chris Hoy / Velodrome
By Neil Stevens
It’s always good to create a new illustration from scratch and off your own back now and then. That’s when you can develop your style and keep things fresh. Here’s a new illustration from a whole new batch I have been working on in the background of late. I’m about to release a whole new portfolio site of work in this style and all going well it will go live in the Spring. So here’s a taster of the new work. Chris Hoy, in the velodrome. There’s only one thing on his mind…Gold!
