Louisville Panorama
A few years ago, while we were home in Kentucky, Allen took this panoramic photo of the Highlands, the Louisville neighborhood in which his sister lives:
Original Photo
In trying to drum up handmade gift ideas for our loved ones this past Christmas, we came up with the idea of turning this panorama into an illustration for his sister. We started the illustration process with outlines. For accuracy and speed purposes, I decided to trace over the image instead of freehand drawing it. My previous, swanky method of window tracing (i.e. putting my project up against a window to use the sun as my light source) wouldn’t quite cut it for such a large print, so we splurged $20 for a lightbox.
Tracing over the photo
We then scanned in the traced outlines and painted it in Photoshop, splitting the painting work between the two of us and eventually merging our files.
Just Outlines
Painting in progress
We tried to add a fair amount of detail in the limited time we had, particularly on the window reflections, while still maintaining a fairly flat, cartoon-like illustration style.
Coffee Shop Detail
Church Detail
Final Panorama (Click to embiggen)