Research

My assigned Guardian article is: ​
‘You should gaze at your bins in horror’: the massive crime scandal behind the UK’s rubbish
My guidelines (w x h) were:
1 feature illustration, 120 x 120 mm
1 spot illustration, 50 x 90 mm
​Both in CMYK
The most appropriate source for my research is the podcast (ongoing as of January 2023) featured in the article, presented by investigative journalist duo Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor. Click on the image below for a link to the first episode.
One fifth of the UK's waste is being dumped in illegal sites. There are hundreds of crime organisations behind this. I want to depict the sheer scale of the crime, because not many citizens think about where their waste goes. No-one could even imagine just how many illegal landfills there are currently out there.
This is also an international issue, as evidenced by the 2021 report below, (click on the left image for the full PDF). It is known as 'waste colonialism'.
Artists
Yuko Shimizu
Brad Holland
Adrian Johnson

Quick and Bold Niemann-esque Workshop

My Work

Reference Imagery
Feature Thumbnails pt.1
Feature 1
After some tutor feedback, I made the toxic waste puddle more sludgy through the inclusion of goop and submerged the bins in the poison pond.
Feature Thumbnails pt.2
Following some important advice, I developed one of my better ideas.
Final Feature Process
This stylisation was mainly influenced by Adrian Johnson's work, but I chose to add textures to my flat shading instead of his cel shading approach. To add the textures, I employed clipping masks on a Luminosity layer and applied various texture brushes on Procreate. The background texture is supposed to imitate the hatching I used in my thumbnails for this idea.
Spot Thumbnails
Spot Illustration Process
I decided against the hatching as it looked a bit distracting, but I wanted to see if it complemented the flat textured shading. I prefer the one on the right as it is cleaner and more straightforward in expression. The left feels slightly overdone.

FINAL OUTCOME