This amazing body of work was created by fifth-year illustration student Justin Benford.
Benford named this beautiful piece “Resilience,” for how much it means to him. He describes this piece as the “threshold for understanding his relationship to his work.” This describes the struggle Benford has between juggling what he felt he like he needed to do versus what he actually wanted for himself. He created this piece as a way of letting go of the expectations that were thrust upon him from himself and outside forces, and instead just allowed himself to focus completely on having fun while drawing this.
Benford is proud of this work for many reasons. The first is how much it helped him wind down from the pressure and find fun in drawing. Another reason is the way he handled the creation himself. If you have seen Benford’s work, you know that this is not his typical style. A lot of Benford’s work is character-based and wonderfully stylized, with much simpler rendering and flat color. Benford decided to experiment a little bit here with his rendering by opting to use a technique called contour hatching instead to give the piece both a realistic feel, yet artistic. As you can see, he captured this absolutely successfully.
Benford is a superb illustrator who can work in a variety of styles. If you want to see more of Benford’s beautiful illustrations and amazing character designs, his Instagram is @arzialous.
