Brass

This is my interim piece before i plunge into another ‘poster project’ – since i haven’t decided which one to do yet.

I’ve always held a fascination for World War II history and have long thought about doing a piece showcasing its top political and military leaders.

So, here ‘s the first set.  I’m calling the piece BRASS and will feature them as if they actually posed for this project (re Kingdom Come covers by Alex Ross). I used the LIFE logo for background as a tribute to the magazine that captured in photos that singular moment in our collective history.

Hope you like it.

Next

Step 3 … and I’m done!

So, here it is finally. It took me a while  -10 years before I got the courage to pick up my pencil again, and then some more after that (another 5 months) to complete the piece. Uninterrupted drawing for 2 hours a day doesn’t really get you far in terms of building momentum but I had my day job to think about, so that was the best I could do.

For those of you just ‘tuning in’, I chose this for my first piece for one simple reason –it’s a great film, period.

The story about a unit of black soldiers during the American Civil War and the young colonel from a patrician, abolitionist family who was  given the job of training and leading them into battle.  It’s one of the best war films ever made, and one whose perfect ensemble cast is matched only by its resounding film score.

Matthew Broderick – Col. Robert Gould Shaw
Denzel Washington – Private Silas Trip
Morgan Freeman – Sergeant Major John Rawlins
Andre Braugher – Corporal Thomas Searles
Jihmi Kennedy – Private Jupiter Sharts
Cary Elwes – Maj. Cabot Forbes
John Finn – Sergeant Major Mulcahy

The director, Edward Zwick, went on to make a slew of other good movies (Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond) but I think this was his best work.  Also, 2009 marked the 20^th anniversary of the film’s theatrical release so I thought that a commemorative poster was just appropriate.

In terms of the PROCESS: I deviated a bit from my original comp after I realized that too much background detail would only distract attention from the piece’s central characters. Once I had the comp down, I transferred the layout to the board (Bainbridge 2200) using traditional 6H then 3B graphite. Given that I haven’t practiced in a while, I was forced to experiment with colored pencil over poster color, and vice versa. Needless to say, this created some problems and even made me think of abandoning the whole project altogether at one point. Of course, airbrush acrylic would have solved all this but that’s another story. Also, I chose not to cover the initial board with gesso which, in hindsight, I probably should have done.

I chose to use a limited palate for this piece primarily because I wanted the overall tone to come across as muted and dark –evocative of the time. I started on Denzel’s profile first, followed by Morgan Freeman,  then Andre Braugher, the two tent-pole drawings (John Finn & Cary Elwes), Jimhi Kennedy, and Matthew Broderick last.

At this point, I have to say that the hardest part of the whole piece was coloring Broderick’s face. The light is behind him to the left and, for some reason, I never quite got the right mix of gold/yellow/orange to define the lighted  vs shaded areas that my 6-yr. old son came to call this part of the piece –coloring the ‘difficult skin’.

I chose the background scenes randomly from a wide selection of screen-shots from the film because, again, I didn’t want it to detract from the central characters. I also decided to anchor the whole piece with a symbol and for this I chose the Civil War Infantry officer’s hat insignia of the horn around the number 54 –you can see this emblem on the hat of Col. Shaw in full gear (apologies for any historic inaccuracies in relation to this).

To bring the whole piece together I used the outline of a soldier’s face –one I borrowed from Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

I then transferred the whole piece to Photoshop CS2 where I spent over a month (!) cleaning and tightening it up.

Hope you like it.

more of 2.5

This is my last post before the  final finished piece.

At the rate i’m going (2h/day give or take), i should be done by July 15th. I’ll try to whittle it down to one piece per month for the next one (any ideas?)

Since i’m using colored pencils, the hard part here was figuring out the right combination of shades for the tonal skin colors -this ate up a lot of time (help airbrush!). Also, notice that the colors are toned down/muted and less evenly spread out as opposed to if i had used acrylic airbrush. But, that’s ok -i’m going for the gritty feel here. These two still need some firming up and some more highlights but you get the idea.

Let me know what you think.

Step 2.5

Decided to do the final comp in colored pencils rather than airbrush acrylic. Although i would have preferred to color using BOTH, I’m still not comfortable w/ the latter (never used it before). Wonder if there are any good online tutorials for this. Feel free to dump on my coloring technique (remember, i haven’t done this in over 10 years) …

Step 2

So, i tried doing the individual elements of the piece ‘free-hand’ coz that’s what i’m used to. Problem was, i bought a really cheap illustration board w/ like half a layer of drawing paper on it so when i needed to make some erasures (from lack of practice), i literally bore a hole through the whole board!.  So, i went out and bought a better one (Bainbridge 2200, textured and cold-pressed) and then proceeded to do what any artist, “pressed for time, and wanting to move on to the next piece” would do, i lightly traced using 6H Graphite.

(There’s a case for you right there: FREE-HAND vs TRACING).

With the tracing done, i went ahead and did the dark/shadowed areas of each individual section of the montage first using 3B Graphite. I’m still doing that now (see sample at left). I’ll post the final comp when done.

And then we color!

Step 1

I haven’t drawn a piece this big in over 10 years and, quite frankly, am a little daunted by the task, not to mention rusty. But what the heck, i have to start somewhere. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the film’s release, so i’m doing it as a tribute to that and because i’m a very big fan of traditional (hand-drawn) movie poster art.

So anyway, i start by collecting reference photos for the piece. Since there are only so many that you can download off the internet, i decided to scan  the whole movie using VLC media player, then took screen shots of the scenes i thought i could use.

I then used Photoshop to crop and clean up the images that i wanted, then proceeded to play with my design and composition. Keeping in mind what inspired me to do the piece in the first place, i want the finished poster to evoke that same shared sense of awe, brotherhood and courage that the film espoused. Once i had the comp i liked, i did a ‘mock-up’ on 9 x 12″ drawing paper using (Faber-Castel) 3B graphite pencil.

And that’s it for step 1.

Finally…Glory!

The other day, i asked my brother for new songs to put into my thumb drive for late night ‘work music’. He gave me a mix of movie scores i loved and Eric Clapton. One of the songs was the main theme from the movie Glory (1989), directed by Edward Zwick.

There are only a handful of films i distinctly remember watching for the first time, because  of the visceral imprint it left on me. Jurassic Park, the Silence of the Lambs, and West Side Story are some of them. Glory is another. It tells the story of the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first formal units in the  US Army made up entirely of African-American soldiers, commissioned to fight in the American Civil War. It  stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman.

From the moment i heard the a capella voices of the Harlem Boys Choir singing to the drums of James Horner’s ‘After Antietam’, i was hooked. His score alone makes the movie worth watching over and over and over again. All in all, a great film –worthy of the men who gave up their lives to end slavery in America 145 years ago.

And so, i’ve decided to do my first ‘one-sheet’ as a tribute to the film. Call it my inspiration. As much as i can,  i will provide some insight on my work process. Hopefully it won’t take too long to finish. Bare in mind, i haven’t done this  in a long time… NOTE: I meant it when i said that i’ve managed to elevate procrastination to the level of art – it’s been 9 months since my last entry.  Nuff said.

Influences…

I know I’m procrastinating again, but what the heck. Until I get into that singular mode of “artistic fervor” I won’t be able to do a piece I can be proud of. Don’t worry, it’s coming … But until then, here are 4 guys whose art greatly influenced my style.

Norman Rockwell, Drew Struzan, George Perez and Alex Ross.

Norman Rockwell’s idealized depictions of everyday life compelled  America to view his Saturday Evening Post covers even when the articles weren’t as good. And, boy, was he prolific: over 4,000 original works. Whew! Check out his Golden Rule at left.

Drew Struzan, the jedi master of movie poster art. Think of an iconic hand-painted movie poster done in the last 35 years, and odds are he did it. Spielberg, Lucas, and M. Night Shyamalan are big fans of his work. And-he-is-fast! Real impressive when you do pieces on 1:1 scale.

George Perez has a clean, fluid style that just looks great on the page. And he’s the guy to beat when it comes to action-packed, group superhero pieces. Teen Titans, Avengers and, of course, Crisis.

And then there’s Alex Ross. Who’s work is a combination of all three styles really. You just can’t beat the photorealism. The pieces, they just come to life. Heroes and Villains straight out of our collective subconscious and we see them, feel them, even hear them. Gets me every time.

For the Kingdom

So let’s start with a piece I did about 10 years ago, a couple of months after Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come came out. A real big fan of Ross’s art, I loved the way he did the covers for the first three books of this classic series. The way he decided to pose all major characters in one shot, as if in a studio, added more depth to already incredible artwork. It’s as if they all decided to take time out from their busy “superhero” lives to pose for one iconic photo op. It just made the whole piece come alive.