Featured by Toyota as one of a group of emerging artists in its Avalon 2005 ad campaign, illustrator Andrea Cobb has been garnering success from her naturally inspired illustrations. Her clients have included the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Newsweek, Sony Music, Maisonneuve, and more. Her work, at times, reflects the powerful palette of the tropics—rich in color with turquoise waters, white sands, and unique flora and fauna.

Whether residing in the city or against deep wooded forests (where she’s now found), Cobb takes note of all her surroundings to generate ideas.“I look closely to the environment to understand things like depth, line, contrast, and texture,” says Cobb. “Van Gogh, Klimt, and Matisse have been faithful inspirations from day one and what [moves] me is trying to push vector to their level. I’m not there yet!” When illustrating environments, “green is never my favorite color for trees, but it’s conventional and I can find other ways to make it more interesting. If I’m directing the piece I’m usually drawn to triadic harmony or discordant combinations,” explains Cobb.

Mild discord can result in stimulating, eyecatching color combinations. Cobb’s illustration, “On Holiday!” (top right) captivates with its startling colors. “I started with choosing the flowers—fuchsia and passion—and continued with complementary colors to make up the rest of the landscape. The woman’s bathing suit is the only black to make a subtle focal point, with accents from the red of the fuchsia flower. The palette consists of six hues, and their values from dark to light,” says Cobb. For attention-demanding designs of your own, use a lush helping of tropically inspired colors.

 

Fonts You won’t get cast off the island with these fonts—for a customized Caribbean vibe, try Pythia (island), Eskargot (hawaii), Trubble (ocean), and Gilligan’s Island (cruise) in your project. Get them free at www.fontface.com.

Images Sail away on a tropical search with terms like Bahamas, Caribbean, sand, beach, ocean, sea, grass skirt, luau, thatched roof, conch shells, waves, harbor, tropics, island, waterfalls, mineral baths, cocoa, and coconut. Natural inspiration Chart a course for banana plantations, small fishing villages, sulphur springs, and volcanos. Image 22832506, Brand X Pictures Organic textures Bird of Paradise, Heliconia, Red Ginger, orchids, Anthurium, sugar cane, and palm trees lend unique tropical textures to your projects. Image 22402806, Dynamic Graphics

PALETTE: Tropical

PALETTE: Combinations