Portfolio updates and writing from John Tregoning, a London-based graphic designer and illustrator.https://johntregoning.art/https://johntregoning.art/writing/premier-league-cover/https://johntregoning.art/writing/premier-league-cover/A full walkthrough of the tools, techniques, and process behind the Kalvin Phillips cover for The Square Ball — from document setup and grayscale drawing through to colour correction and print.Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://johntregoning.art/writing/inking-techniques/https://johntregoning.art/writing/inking-techniques/Colouring finished black and white art is slightly different to painting from scratch, and a lot easier. A step-by-step walkthrough using the Bielsa portrait — from clean PNGs and multiply blending to colour correction and texture.Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://johntregoning.art/work/the-gaffer-jose-mourinho/https://johntregoning.art/work/the-gaffer-jose-mourinho/A cover portrait of José Mourinho in his Roma years for The Gaffer magazine — older, greyer, and drawn with all the heavy-shadowed theatre that face invites.https://johntregoning.art/work/the-drawn-game/https://johntregoning.art/work/the-drawn-game/Cover portrait for The Drawn Game issue 2 — Damien Quinn's illustrated Gaelic Games anthology, drawing hurling legend John Kiely and raising funds for Pieta House and Samaritans.https://johntregoning.art/work/carlo-ancelotti/https://johntregoning.art/work/carlo-ancelotti/A portrait of Carlo Ancelotti for The Gaffer — football's most unflappable manager, drawn for authority and ease rather than theatrical intensity.https://johntregoning.art/work/stuart-dallas/https://johntregoning.art/work/stuart-dallas/A personal portrait of Stuart Dallas — Northern Irish utility man, 250+ Leeds appearances, and the player who beat the champions at the Etihad from central midfield.https://johntregoning.art/work/raphinha-o-monstro/https://johntregoning.art/work/raphinha-o-monstro/A Raphinha cover for The Square Ball — O' Monstro at full tilt, the winger who could turn a Leeds relegation scrap into must-watch football with a single touch.https://johntregoning.art/work/jesse-marsch/https://johntregoning.art/work/jesse-marsch/A painted Jesse Marsch portrait for The Square Ball — the American handed maybe the least enviable job in football: replacing Bielsa, mid-season, in the Premier League.https://johntregoning.art/work/daniel-farke-painted-version/https://johntregoning.art/work/daniel-farke-painted-version/The painted Daniel Farke portrait for The Square Ball — Sargent-ish oil looseness done in a digital workflow, from the cautious-optimism phase of his Leeds rebuild.https://johntregoning.art/work/2324-wembley-final/https://johntregoning.art/work/2324-wembley-final/A sketchbook-style composite gathering the 2023/24 Leeds season onto one page — Farke, Gnonto and the rest, assembled in the flat aftermath of Wembley.https://johntregoning.art/work/these-football-times/https://johntregoning.art/work/these-football-times/Cover illustration for These Football Times issue 43, the Colombia special — a single composition trying to hold a whole country's football history, Valderrama's hair included.https://johntregoning.art/work/daniel-farke/https://johntregoning.art/work/daniel-farke/A clean, direct Daniel Farke portrait for The Square Ball — the digital version, drawn early in his Leeds tenure while calm reconstruction still felt plausible.https://johntregoning.art/work/willy-gnonto/https://johntregoning.art/work/willy-gnonto/A Square Ball cover of Wilfried Gnonto — the fearless teenage Italian who terrorised Championship full-backs the moment he came off the bench for Leeds.https://johntregoning.art/work/kalvin-phillips/https://johntregoning.art/work/kalvin-phillips/A Square Ball cover of Kalvin Phillips, later given an England variant once the local midfield metronome had become national property.https://johntregoning.art/work/leeds-vs-manchester-united-matchday-print/https://johntregoning.art/work/leeds-vs-manchester-united-matchday-print/A Leeds vs Manchester United matchday print — Raphinha at the centre of a fixture that never, ever arrives quietly.https://johntregoning.art/work/pablo-hernandez-el-mago/https://johntregoning.art/work/pablo-hernandez-el-mago/A Pablo Hernández portrait — ¡El Mago! — chasing the grace, timing and impossible calm of a player who always seemed half a second ahead of everyone else.https://johntregoning.art/work/marcelo-bielsa-carajo/https://johntregoning.art/work/marcelo-bielsa-carajo/The Marcelo Bielsa ¡Carajo! print — loud, devotional, and drawn at a resolution that later let it survive being blown up onto a flag at Elland Road.https://johntregoning.art/work/gaetano-berardi-the-lion/https://johntregoning.art/work/gaetano-berardi-the-lion/A Gaetano Berardi portrait for the Leeds That podcast — The Lion, a cult hero who somehow made sheer commitment look like a design principle.https://johntregoning.art/work/home-1/https://johntregoning.art/work/home-1/Elland Road for The Square Ball issue 8 — a wide landscape cover marking Leeds United's long-awaited return to the Premier League.https://johntregoning.art/work/street-fighter-x-leeds-united/https://johntregoning.art/work/street-fighter-x-leeds-united/Leeds United rebuilt as a Street Fighter roster for The Square Ball — character selects, versus screens and title cards, the whole squad recast as a fighting game.https://johntregoning.art/work/andy-harmer-nplh/https://johntregoning.art/work/andy-harmer-nplh/A portrait for NPLH's issue 12, Gratitude — a contribution to the final edition of one of the few football magazines that always took the culture seriously.https://johntregoning.art/work/illan-meslier-the-iceman/https://johntregoning.art/work/illan-meslier-the-iceman/An Illan Meslier cover for The Square Ball — The Iceman, the teenage keeper who looked like he'd been doing it for decades, plus a cat called Vinny.https://johntregoning.art/work/blucerchiati/https://johntregoning.art/work/blucerchiati/A remembrance cover for Blucerchiati, the Whitby Town magazine — a portrait for the issue honouring the players and supporters the club lost over eighteen months.https://johntregoning.art/work/bielsa-el-loco/https://johntregoning.art/work/bielsa-el-loco/A tarot-inspired Marcelo Bielsa cover for The Square Ball — El Loco as card 0, The Fool, where glorious success and total disaster sit a single position apart.https://johntregoning.art/work/mugs/https://johntregoning.art/work/mugs/A trio of Leeds mugs for The Square Ball — Bielsa, Kalvin Phillips and Luke Ayling — translating the portraits into merch without losing their attitude.https://johntregoning.art/work/promotion/https://johntregoning.art/work/promotion/A Leeds United promotion print for The Square Ball — the black-and-white idea reworked in full celebratory colour for the 2022 Summer Special.https://johntregoning.art/work/luke-ayling-wonder-goal/https://johntregoning.art/work/luke-ayling-wonder-goal/A Luke Ayling cover for The Square Ball, in honour of that absurd volley — the kind of goal that earns folklore rather than a mere highlight reel.https://johntregoning.art/work/mateusz-klich/https://johntregoning.art/work/mateusz-klich/Mateusz Klich as The Artysta for The Square Ball — Leeds' midfield engine reframed as the graffiti artist he genuinely is when he's off the pitch.https://johntregoning.art/work/bailey-peacock-farrell/https://johntregoning.art/work/bailey-peacock-farrell/A Frida Kahlo-inspired Bailey Peacock-Farrell cover for The Square Ball — a young Leeds goalkeeper, his defensive chaos, and a supporting cast of monkeys.https://johntregoning.art/work/patrick-bamford-x-england/https://johntregoning.art/work/patrick-bamford-x-england/Patrick Bamford in England colours for The Square Ball — a mug born of the perfectly reasonable urge to indulge a national fantasy for a minute.https://johntregoning.art/work/patrick-bamford-x-england-tsb-summer-special/https://johntregoning.art/work/patrick-bamford-x-england-tsb-summer-special/The Summer Special companion to the Patrick Bamford England mug — the same wishful thinking, reframed for print rather than product.https://johntregoning.art/work/iker-casillas/https://johntregoning.art/work/iker-casillas/A 'Saint Iker' portrait for NPLH's Divine Intervention issue — Casillas and that 2010 Robben save rendered as something between a saint card and a hologram.https://johntregoning.art/work/mateusz-klich-tsb-summer-special/https://johntregoning.art/work/mateusz-klich-tsb-summer-special/A black-and-white Mateusz Klich for The Square Ball Summer Special — the third kit, and a tighter, more graphic counterpoint to the colour-soaked Artysta version.https://johntregoning.art/work/jack-harrison/https://johntregoning.art/work/jack-harrison/A Jack Harrison portrait for The Square Ball's Campeón Special — the winger whose oddly transatlantic route still landed him in Leeds title-winning folklore.https://johntregoning.art/work/tsb-summer-special/https://johntregoning.art/work/tsb-summer-special/The main illustration for The Square Ball's 2019 Summer Special — the Massimo Cellino car-park saga of 2014, drawn as Leeds folklore rather than news report.https://johntregoning.art/work/champions/https://johntregoning.art/work/champions/Leeds United, champions of 2019/20 — a Marcelo Bielsa print made to give promotion-season catharsis some ceremony, with a lockdown coda of El Loco portraits.https://johntregoning.art/work/brothers-berezutski/https://johntregoning.art/work/brothers-berezutski/A Soviet-poster portrait of the Berezutski brothers for NPLH's Fraternity issue — twin iconography, coal-dust severity, and faces drawn as if they were quarried.https://johntregoning.art/work/kalvin-phillips-process/https://johntregoning.art/work/kalvin-phillips-process/Detailed workflow breakdown for the Kalvin Phillips cover, covering tools, grayscale construction, colour development, and final finishing decisions.https://johntregoning.art/work/zonamixta-interview/https://johntregoning.art/work/zonamixta-interview/A cover and interview for Zonamixta magazine — talking inspirations, Leeds, Bielsa and the correct pronunciation of grass, at probably unnecessary length.https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy-1/https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy-1/Selected print editions from the shop — signature portraits and cover work, made to stand on their own as art prints rather than magazine pages.https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy-2/https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy-2/Mounted and framed editions from the shop — key images taken from print file through to finished, framed wall piece.https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy/https://johntregoning.art/work/etsy/A storefront overview — prints, framed editions and the odd product spin-off, all drawn from the wider Leeds archive and gathered in one place.https://johntregoning.art/work/lockdown/https://johntregoning.art/work/lockdown/A run of Marcelo Bielsa portraits drawn during lockdown, when football stopped and sketching El Loco was the closest thing to watching him available.https://johntregoning.art/work/david-villa/https://johntregoning.art/work/david-villa/An unpublished David Villa commission, kept in the archive as a record of the work rather than any endorsement of its subject.https://johntregoning.art/work/pablo-hernandez/https://johntregoning.art/work/pablo-hernandez/A geometric Pablo Hernández print from The Square Ball’s Campeón Special — one of the most graceful players Leeds ever had, reduced to clean line, flat colour and rhythm.https://johntregoning.art/work/eddie-nketiah/https://johntregoning.art/work/eddie-nketiah/An Eddie Nketiah piece for The Square Ball — less a portrait than a drawing of the exact sound of a crowd deciding it loves someone. EDDIE EDDIE EDDIE.https://johntregoning.art/work/thomas-christiansen/https://johntregoning.art/work/thomas-christiansen/A Thomas Christiansen portrait for The Square Ball — that brief, top-of-the-table glow of late 2017, drawn graphic and skeletal because of how it all ended.https://johntregoning.art/work/ian-baird/https://johntregoning.art/work/ian-baird/A variant cover of Ian Baird for The Square Ball issue 3 — part of an issue dressing old Leeds players in classic kits, rendered with maybe too much reverence.https://johntregoning.art/work/davide-somma/https://johntregoning.art/work/davide-somma/A galactic Davide Somma for The Square Ball's 2019 Summer Special — equal parts Leeds nostalgia and full-blown space-opera overreaction.https://johntregoning.art/work/ronaldo-vieira/https://johntregoning.art/work/ronaldo-vieira/A private commission for a young fan, made for Ronaldo Vieira to sign — and run more on generosity than on anything resembling commercial sense.https://johntregoning.art/work/push-start-leeds-x-street-fighter/https://johntregoning.art/work/push-start-leeds-x-street-fighter/An arcade title-screen print spun out of the Street Fighter X Leeds United series — coins, cabinet art, and far too many late nights distilled into one screen.https://johntregoning.art/work/the-square-ball/https://johntregoning.art/work/the-square-ball/A small survey of Leeds United work that's appeared in The Square Ball — and a chance to credit Eamonn Dalton, the designer who art-directed most of it into print.https://johntregoning.art/work/colouring-process/https://johntregoning.art/work/colouring-process/Process notes on colouring finished line art, focusing on underpainting, layer strategy, texture, and final colour refinement.https://johntregoning.art/work/england/https://johntregoning.art/work/england/A small set of grayscale England studies — Kane, Pickford, Sterling — kept restrained, and carrying the usual ambivalence the national side tends to inspire.https://johntregoning.art/work/yosuke-ideguchis-arrival/https://johntregoning.art/work/yosuke-ideguchis-arrival/An early Square Ball cover marking Yosuke Ideguchi's arrival at Leeds — now a quiet document of all the anticipation his career here never got to repay.https://johntregoning.art/work/robert-molenaar/https://johntregoning.art/work/robert-molenaar/A Robert Molenaar portrait for The Square Ball Summer Special, jamming a cult-Leeds defender's face into J. C. Leyendecker's Saturday Evening Post style.https://johntregoning.art/work/kemar-roofe/https://johntregoning.art/work/kemar-roofe/The first published Square Ball cover and first released digital illustration — a Kemar Roofe portrait that started life as a study to learn Adobe Illustrator.https://johntregoning.art/work/the-square-ball-calendar/https://johntregoning.art/work/the-square-ball-calendar/A Luciano Becchio illustration for February of The Square Ball's charity calendar, with every penny of profit going to the Leeds Children's Hospital Appeal.https://johntregoning.art/work/mifa/https://johntregoning.art/work/mifa/A Ross Barkley sticker for MIFA 2020 — the charity project filling in the players missing from the World Cup album, one illustrated sticker at a time.https://johntregoning.art/work/street-fighter-mugs/https://johntregoning.art/work/street-fighter-mugs/A merch spin-off from the Street Fighter X Leeds United series — the arcade artwork squeezed onto a mug and its box without losing the punch.https://johntregoning.art/work/garry-monk-vs-david-wagner/https://johntregoning.art/work/garry-monk-vs-david-wagner/A manga-style Garry Monk vs David Wagner for The Square Ball's 2019 Summer Special — a touchline grievance restaged, with full Yusuke Murata commitment, as a fight poster.https://johntregoning.art/work/blank-media/https://johntregoning.art/work/blank-media/Portraits for Blank Media, a music venture — a Boris Blank portrait, plus a brief and doomed experiment in turning the drawing's build-up into audio-reactive animation.https://johntregoning.art/work/bielsa-process/https://johntregoning.art/work/bielsa-process/Process notes for the Marcelo Bielsa ¡Carajo! piece, focused on file setup, scale, drawing progression, and print-ready thinking.https://johntregoning.art/work/shop/https://johntregoning.art/work/shop/An unframed print selection from the shop — signature portraits, magazine covers and selected Leeds editions, all made to stand on their own.https://johntregoning.art/work/the-artysta/https://johntregoning.art/work/the-artysta/A third Mateusz Klich piece — what started as part of a triptych and quietly grew into a whole self-propagating Klich visual world. Still a work in progress.