A Miami Dreamscape: Reimagining Bal Harbour Shops

I’ve been working on something a little different lately. An illustration for the Bal Harbour Shops Creative Challenge, an international competition inviting illustrators to create their own artistic interpretation of this iconic Miami shopping destination. This competition initially caught my eye as the brief was right up my street: fashion, dining, nature, art and culture.

When I started thinking about it, I knew I wanted to do more than simply draw a shopping centre. I wanted to take the real place, with its beautiful boutiques, tropical gardens and restaurants, and turn it into something a little more dreamlike.

The result is my own Miami dreamscape, where reality and fantasy blur together.

A little inspiration from the real world

Bal Harbour Shops is known for its mix of luxury fashion, outdoor dining and lush tropical surroundings. The palm trees, water features and open walkways give it a character that's quite different from your typical shopping centre.

I used the actual location as the starting point for my illustration, incorporating familiar boutiques including Fendi, Gucci, Loewe and Prada, alongside the architecture and greenery that make the setting so distinctive.

I wanted the finished piece to feel recognisable to anyone who knows Bal Harbour Shops, while still having plenty of my own personality running through it.

Colour, colour and more colour

Once I had the initial idea mapped out, I sketched the composition before moving on to the inking stage. One of the key features was the underwater dining area, inspired by some of Bal Harbour Shops’ restaurants, including Makoto, a Japanese restaurant, and Slim’s Steak House. I imagined diners sitting beside a turquoise underwater world, bringing a slightly surreal twist to the real-life setting.

These photos show my first inked version, where I started bringing all the different elements of the illustration to life.

I wasn’t completely happy with the colour of the sky, so I went back and re-inked that section, then overlaid the new version in Photoshop. Still not quite right, I switched to Procreate and used the 6B Pencil brush to sketch over the sky, giving it a different feel. While I was there, I added a few more details with the same brush, gradually building up the illustration in layers.

Once I was happy with the overall look, I used digital collage to bring in more texture and give the finished piece that extra bit of depth.

And voilà! The finished Miami Dreamscape illustration.

Bringing it all together

Working on a larger illustration like this is quite different from creating a greetings card or a small print. There's more room to tell a story, build up the setting and include those little details that might otherwise be left out. I've really enjoyed getting lost in the details and seeing the dreamscape take shape, and I'm excited to finally share the finished illustration. It's been a lovely opportunity to explore a different side of my illustration work.

You can find out more about the Bal Harbour Shops Creative Challenge on the official website.

Wish me luck!