Dragon Tattoo

Some "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" related sketches that I don't think I ever posted.

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, circa "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (2009 Swedish film).

Sadly, there hasn't been any news on whether or not there's definitely going to be an American adaptation of "Played with Fire" with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Furthermore, David Fincher may not even return to direct if it does get greenlit. However, I could (reluctantly) live with him not coming back if it meant the studio was committed to finding a good replacement. Upon watching "The Grey" today for the first time since seeing it in the theater, I was reminded that I think co-writer/director Joe Carnahan would be an excellent candidate. The man clearly knows how to make a mature, complex,  uncompromising and emotional R-rated film. We'll see what happens...

2:54

This past Monday, I had the pleasure of seeing the great 2:54 headline at the Mercury Lounge, NYC. I was introduced to them through the also great Wild Beasts, who did a killer remix of their song "You're Early." Upon watching the music video for the original track, I was an instant convert. Watching the clip for "Scarlet" solidified my fandom. Their exceptional debut album (mixed by Alan Molder) was just released on Fat Possum records - buy it on iTunes, Amazon MP3, or listen on Spotify.

It was a genuine thrill getting to meet Colette, Hannah, Joel, and Alex, and being able share some of my art with them. I hope I helped make their current US tour that much more fun & memorable - they certainly made my night an amazing one. Can't for the next tour!

Thumbnails.

Raw illustration.

Photoshop explorations.

Final poster.

Signed poster!!!

EDIT: 7/17/12

You can see my 2:54 artwork on SPIN magazine's website, as a part of a photo-journal of the band's recent tour!! Awesome!!

Here's a screencap:

Metric

Last night I had the honor of seeing Metric play at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. They put on an amazing show as expected and their new album Synthetica sounded great live. I've had an unusual amount of creative momentum lately, starting with the Zola Jesus show at the Guggenheim, and continuing this past Monday seeing 2:54 (post coming soon), so working off that I conceived and executed a Metric poster for the Williamsburg show in the span of roughly 36 hours. It was exhausting but exciting and COMPLETELY fucking worth it. I made color prints of the poster on tabloid paper a few hours before the show, and made sure I had enough for each member of the band and a copy for myself. Anyway, when the band exited it the stage I was dragged by a friend through the crowd to the front of the venue (prints in tow), and since this event was being filmed, I obnoxiously held up the poster I made to a camera that was sweeping the first few rows of the crowd - it seemed to get the camera's attention. The band then came back out for the obligatory encore and tore through "Gold Guns Girls", during which my friend gave one of my prints to the bass player, Josh. Then, for the final song of the night, lead singer Emily Haines and guitarist Jimmy Shaw went acoustic, playing a gorgeous version of "Gimme Sympathy" - but not before my friend handed Emily one of my prints, which she commented on in front of the entire audience, making eye contact with me from just a few feet away. Surreal. Nice to know I have a few eye witnesses, too. After their closing number, I howled in appreciation but didn't actually think Emily would take the print with her - sure enough, exiting the stage she picked it back up, turned back to look at me and mouthed "thank you." So... life = complete.

Since I love showing process, I posted the first thumbnails and sketches I cooked up, leading to the individually drawn portraits on separate pieces of paper. Once each portrait was scanned, they were arranged and modified in Photoshop, and all given Terminator eyes.

 

EDIT (6/22/12): Video proof of my encounter with Ms. Haines...

Also, here's a scan of the one remaining poster I gave out that night to some fellow fans (who happened to be from NJ if I remember correctly). After I left, they stayed around and got it signed by Emily! I attached a pic of all the band's signatures from a recent KROQ session they did to confirm its authenticity.

EDIT #2 (6/23/12): I stumbled upon some lovely photos from the Williamsburg show by a photographer named Ken Grand-Pierre, which included 2 pictures of Emily holding my poster! He also wrote a nice review of the gig and even mentioned my brief encounter with Ms. Haines. Thanks to Ken for taking the pics, and for letting me post his work! Check out his social media.

Warpaint

I've been an absolutely huge Warpaint fan since seeing them open for The xx back in 2010 - their show at the United Palace Theater in NYC remains one of my favorites of the past few years - a great example of Support Act + Headliner harmony. In any case, I've been itching to do a more thoughtful, labored Warpaint piece for a long time. They were one of the first bands I thought of when beginning my "band poster" kick. I knew I wanted to create something that directly acknowledged the name of the band (at the risk of being too on-the-nose) - the potential, in terms of visuals and imagery, was just too rich to ignore. One way or another, I decided that the first member I'd depict in this inevitable series of Warpaint posters would be singer-guitarist Theresa Wayman (maybe its because I love her song "Shadows" so much). Working from a still taken from the music video for their incredible, self-titled track "Warpaint" - I wanted Theresa's state and expression to be somewhat ambiguous (is she awake? alive?). Additionally, the paint itself was quite literally finger-paint that I dragged over tracing paper with my own digits. That tracing paper was then scanned, layered, and slightly manipulated over the scan of the illustration. I debated whether or not I wanted the paint to be contained by the frame of the face (i.e. more realistic) or if it should be layered in such a way that was vaguely omniscient and/or ethereal. I went with the latter, which seemed fitting, given that the drawing by itself already had a hint of that quality.

Big Black Delta

Big Black Delta, the solo project of former Mellowdrone frontman Jonathan Bates, continues to be one of my favorite new acts of recent times... so of course I had to do a Big Black Delta poster. This one is pretty straightforward: as with all of my work as of late, I wanted to create a graphite portrait, in this case of Bates, which felt especially appropriate since he alone is the grand architect behind all BBD music. Playing into the UFO lore and Space themes that Bates is so inspired by, I essentially layered the original illustration/portrait with a telescopic photo of a nebula. It was a simple solution, but seemingly the best one since it (hopefully) conveys the idea that all of this music is bursting and radiating from one person's brain. The more abstract background embellishments that surround Bates on the original drawing were directly inspired by the incredible work of Caspar Newbolt & Version Industries who have thus far done all the official artwork for Big Black Delta.

Thumbnails

Raw scan of the graphite illustration

Final image

"Prometheus" illustrations

Have you seen Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" yet? You should. A highly cerebral and visceral film you will NOT be able to shake easily. I plan on doing more "Prometheus" related drawings soon, but these few were completed slightly before its June 8th release. The first is based on a frame towards the end of the movie, depicting main character Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace). I also included some Photoshop explorations, attempting to take the portrait in a more deliberately poster-esque direction. 




 Next is a piece based on the brilliant bit of viral marketing for "Prometheus" that featured Guy Pearce (who happens to be one of my all-time favorite actors) as Peter Weyland, giving a TED Talk in 2023. I wanted to create a poster that was elegant and uncluttered (not unlike Apple's general aesthetic) - one that hints at the colossal kind of event this might be in the universe of "Prometheus", since TED is so prolific and Peter Weyland is essentially the Steve Jobs of Ridley's fiction. I'll likely be revisiting this one with slight adjustments as time goes on.