“I draw for a living, and draw on people’s walls,” says George F. Baker III. “Every little kid’s dream.”

The illustrator and muralist uses his creativity as a means of communication, having  developed his talents from a young age to adapt to the realities of a life lived on the go, with hometowns that have included Omaha, Detroit, and now, Atlanta. “I had to move around a lot growing up, and because of that, I was introduced to a variety of different people in a bunch of different places. I had to learn to connect; it’s one of my greatest skills. I like to think of myself as a conversation creator. I make things that have some sort of message that people can take with them,” he says.

He learned to wield a pen while tracing Pokémon characters, but discovering Keith Haring’s work in school, he says, was truly eye-opening. “He wasn’t drawing the Sistine Chapel but he was just as important, just as artistic as Michelangelo,” Baker says. “Exposure to his work made me think I could actually do [art] full-time, in my way.”

A background in graphic design gave him the ability to use digital tools with precision, attracting clients like Nike and the NFL, but Baker’s signature style is loose and free — just like the feeling that he gets from the art he makes. “My work has a child-like feel,” Baker says. “I want to create images that are playful in nature and inspire people to play as much as possible: with ideas, with actions, with anything. I'm having fun and following joy, and I want others to feel that, too.”

Just because his portfolio has an engaging pop sensibility, however, doesn’t mean it’s superficial. “I don't believe in the assumption that I try to make positive work. I’m not trying to force optimism on anybody. Life is hard. Difficult things are happening every day. But whatever we do, we're all people. That is a basic truth that goes across the board. In those moments where I do get low, I can at least come back to that truth. And I try to create art that reflects that.”

Here, Baker shares the two big ideas he imagined and brought to big, bold life using Adobe Illustrator on the iPad. As told to Jordan Kushins.

The message.

I often start with a message, thinking of different concepts in my head and writing down words that I'm interested in. For these posters, I began by trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say.

“I got enthralled watching some skater friends of mine on Instagram,” says Baker, of his inspiration for this piece. “Their personalities were very, like: ‘Look. I’m going to go as hard as possible skating, and also on the art that I do. But I can still be laid back and relaxed, and give myself time to chill.’”

“Graffiti is often demonized,” Baker says. “I thought that I would love if there was a guy with spray cans, literally just spreading good. Like: ‘You may think it’s a bad thing, but I’m just spreading good.’”

The medium is the marker.

I'm still in my sketchbook pretty much every single day. I still love to do that, because at the end of the day, it helps me flesh out what I want to do. I use a pencil or the same kind of Pilot pen that I've been using since I was a kid.

But I love my Posca markers — they’re the best markers I’ve ever used, with very vibrant colors pretty much all across the rainbow. I probably have about 65 of them: from chisel weight for big fills, to standard 3mm, to pin precision. They're acrylic paint, so instead of being streaky, they lay down flat and consistent throughout my entire drawing. I'll start sketching out different forms and go from there. If I’m not really feeling it there, I'll just go back to pencil and figure it out.

Normally I feel like I’m ready to go digital when I’ve got the base composition down. I've never owned a scanner, so I simply do what everybody else does—put my camera right above the paper and take a picture.

Screen time.

Once I get into Adobe Illustrator on the iPad, I bring the photo of my sketch into my Artboard and lock that down. I try to approach the piece in an architectural way. That becomes my blueprint, and then I start building out my foundation with the variety of tools in the app.

I’ll grab a new Layer and use the Pen and Pencil tools to literally trace right over the image, from top to bottom. I’ll experiment with different line weights.

Once it’s in there, I can make adjustments. Maybe something feels off. Maybe there’s too many elements. What if I added a couple more buttons? What if it had stars in the back? I can add something that wasn't there, or take away something that was; make things larger, or smaller. I’ll mess with the display text I drew. If it’s not right, I’ll try again.

I’ll build out this entire structure — make sure my points are connected, and my shapes are functioning well — so that when I get to the Paint Bucket tool, it's easy to fill in the shapes.

That’s wall, folks.

For murals, once my piece is final, I'll go right up to the site. If I have access to power, I’ll literally bring out a projector late at night, plug it into my computer, pull out my image, and shoot it up on the wall. The great thing about being both the designer of the piece and the muralist is that I can go right back into Illustrator and make my adjustments in real time. And then I just keep going..

Check out more from George F. Baker III on Instagram.


See more inspiring articles about Illustrator on the iPad.

Header image made with Adobe Illustrator on the iPad.