Design archive / Personal illustration

Ideas in colour.

Personal work exploring shape, colour and composition, from a Baconsthorpe Castle sunset featuring my son Toby to early digital drawing and experimental apparel graphics.

Work: Vector, character, apparel & hand-drawn illustration
Designer: Daniel Hornby
Also explore: Hand-drawn wildlife & portraits

01 / Vector illustration

A road into the landscape.

A personal illustration exploring colour, layered shapes and atmosphere, built in Adobe Illustrator.

Black and yellow Beetle on a country road beneath a vivid sunset and layered purple sky — Personal vector artwork by Daniel Hornby.

Sky repair behind the removed lettering — Personal vector artwork by Daniel Hornby.

02 / Personal illustration

Toby and the Baconsthorpe tree.

A personal sunset illustration with a connection to a real place and my family. The tree silhouette is based on the tree at Baconsthorpe Castle, shown in the reference photograph. The child is my son, Toby.

The Baconsthorpe Castle tree and Daniel’s son Toby silhouetted against a vivid purple, pink and gold sunset with birds overhead — The finished illustration. Personal artwork by Daniel Hornby.

The original leafless tree beside the stone ruins at Baconsthorpe Castle, used as the silhouette reference — The original tree at Baconsthorpe Castle, which inspired the silhouette.

03 / Early digital illustration

An early drawing, revisited later.

The car began as one of my early digital illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. The city backdrop, skyline and lightning were added several years later, combining illustration with compositing.

Subaru WRX digital illustration against a purple city skyline and lightning — The original car illustration and the later background belong to different stages of the work.

04 / Personal experiments

Colour, movement and composition.

Two personal T-shirt concepts exploring vector shapes, music and urban forms. The flat artwork is shown alongside apparel mock-ups.

Teal personal T-shirt concept with a performer, circles and rising arrows — Personal vector illustration, shown as flat artwork and a T-shirt mock-up.
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Black and gold personal T-shirt concept with an urban building and colourful circular forms — Personal vector illustration combining architecture, abstract forms and colour.
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05 / Character & identity illustration

Characters, marks and an earlier Byhorn crest.

Three further archive pieces: the Free Spirit character, two Trillbee illustrations and the ornate Byhorn heritage crest.

Free Spirit illustrated character artwork by Daniel Hornby — **Free Spirit**Illustrated character and identity artwork.

Two complete Trillbee insect musician characters — **Trillbee characters**Two character directions created for the music identity.

Byhorn heritage crestAn earlier coat-of-arms direction from the Byhorn archive.

06 / Hand-drawn work

Wildlife and portrait studies.

All four supplied hand-drawn pieces are included here: two wildlife studies and two portraits.

Hand-drawn elephant study by Daniel Hornby — **Elephant**A wildlife study in texture and depth.

Hand-drawn giraffe study by Daniel Hornby — **Giraffe**Detailed markings balanced with softer tones.

Hand-drawn portrait of a smiling man wearing a knitted hat — **Portrait study I**Expression, light and layered pencil shading.

Hand-drawn portrait with a raised hand and detailed hair — **Portrait study II**A study of hands, hair and expression.

07 / Complete portrait & wildlife archive

More of the original drawing work.

The David Bowie, Jim Morrison, Paul Weller, Winston Churchill, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson portraits are shown here alongside the butterfly study.