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.

Austra pt. II

I've been dying to see Austra live for a long time now - so much so that I created a poster for them long before they'd announced any tour dates in my area [see my original poster for Austra here]. So, by the time they did announce an NYC date, I already had a piece in the vault ready to go. However, in the weeks leading up to the show, I realized I needed to revamp it and make it the best it could be. That, and I wanted to create a show-specific version of the poster as I'm prone to do.

I finally had the chance to see the band last night and they didn't disappoint. The whole show was great, but my personal highlights were probably the fantastic new songs they played.

After the show, which took place at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, the band (including lead singer Katie Stelmanis) went to Glasslands for a DJ set. It was there that I had the honor and pleasure of giving Katie and bass player Dorian Wolf a set of the posters I made. They were both gracious, appreciative, and super nice. Katie even complemented my Pretty Hate Machine shirt (!!) and liked my artwork so much she gave me a hug and a personalized autograph on my copy. Amazing.

My bucket list continues to shrink.

Show-specific design.

Generic design.

My personal copies signed by Katie and Dorian.

Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson is one of my favorite musicians period. He's most well known for his work with Porcupine Tree, but he has a massive amount of other bands and side-projects of comparable greatness. Lately, he's been focusing on music under his own name - most recently a forthcoming concert film titled "Get All You Deserve" in which Steven and his remarkable backing band perform songs from both his solo albums (and even throw in an amazing tune from his upcoming 3rd solo LP).

When I started my Steven Wilson poster back in March or April of this year, it was more closely related to his last studio album "Grace For Drowning" and I very deliberately borrowed the amber color scheme of that record. Since then, Steven announced the previously mentioned live album, so it seemed like a good excuse to tailor what I'd done to the most relevant release.

Thus, I changed the color scheme to match the incredible cover image by Lasse Hoile (Steven's visual partner-in-crime and a huge personal inspiration to me).

The illustration is meant to convey the 2 different sides of Steven - the one explored in his first solo album "Insurgentes" (bottom left) and the one that currently exists in the double album "Grace For Drowning" (upper right). Since the main intent of the poster is for it to be something you'd buy at one of his concerts (i.e. a performance that is inclusive of ALL his solo material), I wanted a drawing that represented both albums up to this point. Hope you like!

Raw, graphite illustration.

First version - obviously modeled after "Grace For Drowning."

Latest version - meant to sync visually with the "Get All You Deserve" cover art.

Steven Wilson official site.

Steven Wilson on facebook and twitter.

Official Steven Wilson street team on facebook and twitter.

Pre-order "Get All You Deserve" for a Sept. 24th release.