This illustration / painting was commissioned by KPN. When I worked at KPN as a Freelance UX / UI Designer, I once mentioned I also make art. In response to that comment, KPN commissioned me a total of four works of art in the few years after. This was the first assignment.

Concept

An eco-system visually represented by a growing tree
KPN is one of the largest telecom providers in the Netherlands. Because the painting had to reference KPN in some way, I decided to represent the large corporation as an ‘eco-system’. And translated this eco-system visually as a growing tree. With staff in the middle and bees as clients.

More info on the process can be found in my blog on this painting/illustration here.

Digital illustration turned into a painting

Converted pencil sketches
To determine the right composition, I started working with plain old pencil and paper. Then I converted the pencil sketches to a digital illustration using Adobe Illustrator. That provided me a way to quickly determine the right colors.

Illustration printed on canvas

Used as an underpainting
After deciding on the final color scheme and the correct compositions, the illustration was printed as a large line drawing on canvas. Then the illustration was used as an underpainting for the final painting. This ensured each detail was on the exact right spot and resulted in the symmetric image I had in mind.