For this competition I was asked to create an illustration that was about 'Fight Night', which is an annual kickboxing tournament between Loughborough University and Edinburgh University.
 
I used this short three day project as an opportunity to create my silhouette-based artwork completely digitally. Usually I hand-cut paper, and then use that for either photography or digital manipulation. However, as this was a very short editorial project I had to work out how to cut corners.
 
As someone who knew nothing about kickboxing, this was a challenging project. I decided to use this to my advantage and create a poster promoting the event for people who knew little about the sport. People, who were already fans, would almost certainly already know about the event. I needed to make a poster that used iconic imagery to do with the sport and looked eye-catching/ intriguing to a new audience.

My aim was to use my bold silhouette-based visual language and the kickboxing gloves to create a pyramid to symbolise the climb to triumph of the champions fighting. I used a part of the 'Fight Night' official logo at the top to symbolise the goal of triumph.
 
I used texture i made from spray paint to symbolise the blood splatters from the fighting, but used a friendlier colour palette other than red, so the poster doesn't look particularly violent. My aim with this was to make the poster look dramatic from the splatters and draw the eye, but not deter customers from the event from it looking too violent. I wanted to give the dramatic feel of the tournament, but make it vague and enticing enough to leave people interested. 
 
In some of the designs, I used a spot light to make the poster look more atmospheric and to draw the eye to the 'Fight Night' logo, but decided against this in the final poster. I chose the leave it out, and instead make the image off-centre, so the image could make the most of the negative space and look mysterious. This also allowed more space for the event information.