School of Seven Bells

I've been a School of Seven Bells fan for a long time now. I can still remember my friend sharing their song Half Asleep via MySpace! I've happily followed them ever since. As per their newest (arguably best) album "Ghostory", my original poster illustration attempted to play up that theme, but was also rushed, and I kept hitting dead ends with it. However, it's still something I'm willing to revisit at some point - the pencils could definitely be tightened up for one thing.

When SVIIB announced a date at Maxwell's in Hoboken (one of my favorite venues), I knew I needed to start from scratch.

Original thumbnails

Original illustration.

Photoshop exploration.

Thumbnails take 2.

Final portrait of Benjamin.

Final portrait of Alley.

Final poster.

Maxwell's specific poster.

Physical copy, graciously signed by Benjamin (upper right) & Alley (upper left), as well as the other Alley who does live keyboards/backing vox (bottom right) and Chris who does drums (bottom left).

That's now twice in a row in which the artist in question has liked my work enough to describe it as "beautiful" (verbally and in ink), in addition to their signature (Katie Stelmanis from Austra was the first). I'm humbled and honored by their comments: I look up to these musicians.