Chromatics

If you've seen Drive starring Ryan Gosling, you're familiar with Chromatics, and by extension, their label Italians Do It Better. In fairness, "Tick of the Clock" isn't the track most representative of their sound - their songs are typically more vocal driven - but the majority of their output still is a satisfyingly dark, melancholic take on pop music. Their latest album, Kill For Love, is a perfect example of this.

As tiresome as it's become when describing a band's music, the songs crafted by Chromatics on Kill For Love are genuinely cinematic, to the point where the band are offering a full size 25 x 37" poster of the album's cover art (complete with movie-style credits). Considering how prominent "Tick of the Clock" and "Under Your Spell" (by labelmates Desire) are in the Drive soundtrack (Chromatics producer Johnny Jewel even wrote an entire score for the movie that was unfortunately shelved), the "cinematic" descriptor feels earned for once. As such, when creating a piece for the band, I wanted the artwork to reflect that. Since they already have a poster that you'd find in a theater or box office, I thought I should do something for home video.

I don't know if the imagery is too on-the-nose, but I simply couldn't resist. As you'll see in the thumbnails, I considered including the entire band, or doing multiple versions with different band members (which is still a possibility). Yet, if there's one figure to include, it's singer Ruth Radelet.

Thumbs

Final illustration

Obviously, Frank Miller's Sin City was an inspiration. I generally avoid complex color schemes to begin with, so the plentiful blood seemed like a good opportunity to suggest that color had drained out of Ruth's body.

Final image

A more poster oriented version

Perhaps a full VHS package is in line?