Rider’s Lens: Cory Campbell’s Illustrations

Words and illustrations by Cory Campbell

My name is Cory Campbell, and I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was born and raised there, calling the high deserts, rugged mountains, and lush forests home. I bounced around in college from Durango, Colorado, to Lincoln, Nebraska, finally settling in Walla Walla, Washington, where I finished a degree in design.

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

From there, I moved back home to New Mexico and stayed there for 13 years. Cycling has been a constant throughout all that time. It’s a reliable pastime that I always seem to come back to. I recently moved up to Madison, Wisconsin, and currently live here with my family and work as a visual designer for Trek Bikes.

• 
• 
• 

I have loved the idea of creativity since childhood. I used to think it was so interesting that someone had to design all the things we come in contact with daily, from cereal boxes to cars and everything in between. It wasn’t until I started skateboarding at around 10 years old that I realized design and illustration could be a career path. The magazines and board art were mesmerizing to me, and the physical act of skateboarding has an artistic flow in and of itself.

I went to college for graphic design and have worked in the field in some capacity ever since. I was the creative director for La Cumbre Brewing Co. in Albuquerque for six years, and during that time, I homed in on my digital illustration style designing beer cans. These days, I try to infuse my colorful illustration style into as many Trek projects as I can. My hand-made style, watercolor painting, and illustrations have always been more of a personal pursuit, just something I do because I love it.

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

As a graphic designer, I love creating anything that will become a tangible product. Something that will find use in a real-world setting. As an artist, I simply love painting for the sake of it, mostly watercolor and gouache, and in plein air if possible. When I’m not working you can find me riding mountain bikes or cruising gravel roads with my wife Rachel and our two kids Zara (5) and Colette (2.5). I love old cars as well and have a vintage Alfa Romeo that I’m always tinkering on.

I think the world around us gives so much if you take the time to listen. When I get into a creative rut, it usually only takes some form of physical movement to get back into creative flow. For me, it’s usually a mountain bike ride or a walk in the forest.

For digital illustration, I always start with a pencil sketch on cheap printer paper. I like doing that because it reminds me that during the sketch and ideation stages, it doesn’t need to be perfect. I then take a photo of the rough sketches and bring them into Adobe Illustrator to finish out. I will use an iPad and a stylus as a tablet to shade and finish the work. Occasionally, I will use Photoshop to add textures. For watercolor, I really love working in a sketchbook. I use gouache, watercolors, Micron pens, fountain pens, and sometimes markers, all carried in an old backpack that I can walk in with or strap to the rack on my bike. I have a homemade sketch easel that attaches to a camera tripod for plein air studies.

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

The spirit of adventure that comes with riding a bike, especially down a dirt road or trail, is, for me, unmatched by pretty much anything. It teaches me to take the path less traveled. However, in some ways, creating can be a scary undertaking. It takes a spirit of adventure to go down the path of creativity because you don’t know what you will find at the end, but the journey is almost always more rewarding than you could anticipate.

• 
• 

I love working in the cycling industry. I hope to take on more design leadership roles as time goes on. I also love to travel too, and I hope to go on many more trips and document my way through them in a sketchbook.

• 
• 
• 

My field gear includes gouache paints, a Schmincke compact watercolor travel set, various brushes, most from Richeson, a small Nalgene water jar, pencils, micron pens, fountain pens, a Pentalic watercolor journal, a palate made from an old pencil tin spray painted white with enamel, and a homemade sketch easel that attaches to a camera tripod. For a smaller kit, it’s just one Escoda travel brush, the Schmincke watercolor pans, a pencil, and a few pens.

Related Content

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...