Free Dominguez

I can remember my 2 older brothers playing Kidneythieves when I was younger, and being very struck by it. "Taxicab Messiah" is hard to forget. One of my more distinct memories is staying up late one night watching MTV (which was the only time of day they when would play music videos when this happened) and being shocked to see the video for the title track from "Zerospace." I'm not even sure I knew a video existed for the song at the time - this being before YouTube, I immediately tried to tape as much of it as possible so I could share with my siblings the next day.

Since then, Kidneythieves have released a third album "Trypt0fanatic" and an EP "The Invisible Plan." Meanwhile, singer Free Dominguez has kept busy in between KT releases doing solo work. As of late, she's made a point to play intimate NYC shows when in the area. For her most recent NYC gig this past September, I tried illustrating the kind of poster I'd be interested in buying. Luckily, some other fans felt similarly!

Thumbnails

Final illustration

(you'll notice the right eye is under-developed since I knew I'd be covering it with an arrow anyway)

Hand-drawn arrow + text

Glitch-y effect I accidentally got when scanning the illustration - ended up being a critical part of the final poster!

Photoshop explorations.

Final poster.

(photo credit: Free Dominguez)

Keep an eye out for Free's upcoming Kickstarter campaign for her next solo LP 'Volacno+The Sea.'

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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.

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?

Kevin Smith

I've been a Kevin Smith fan for a long time: his movies, his comics, his amazing Q&A's, and most recently, his armada of podcasts - especially "Fatman on Batman" in which he interviews pivotal figures in Batman's history, usually people from the brilliant Animated Series (i.e. Mark  Hamill, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, etc.). He got Kevin Conroy (the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman from the Animated Series & the guy who has been voicing the character for the past 20+ years) on the latest episode, and what an episode it is. It goes deep, an it gets heavy. It's an amazing listen for any fan of the Batman cartoon. Conroy actually attended Juliard the same time that Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve did (among other great stories and factoids).

At the very end of the podcast, Kevin Smith asks Conroy to give him life affirmations in his Batman voice, like: "Kevin [Smith], you were right to do what you did with Red State at Sundance" and "Kevin, you lost your father, and I lost my parents, but know they still love us." Some really personal and moving stuff that ended up inspiring the drawing I made.

When Smith announced he was doing a signing for his new book at Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, NJ (which would also be filmed for the new season of AMC's Comic Book Men), I knew I had to attend and give Kevin a piece of original art. Almost immediately, I thought of the "Fatman on Batman" podcast...

It was a brutal day (my brother and I waited on line for 6+ hours), but meeting Jay Mewes, Ming Chen, Mike Zapzic, and of course Kevin Smith himself made it all worth it. For all I know, he threw out the drawing as soon as I left, but he seemed genuinely appreciative (and just genuine in general), especially considering he was supposed to sign from 2 to 5pm, and ended up signing from 2 to 10pm - signing stuff people brought, posing for pictures, and talking with EVERYONE who waited.

Hats off to you, Mr. Smith. You're a class act and I hope you enjoy the illustration.

Thumbnails.

The final piece (finished while waiting on line).

Random sketch I did while trying to maintain sanity on line.

Me and the inimitable Ming Chen from Comic Book Men. He liked my Walking Dead t-shirt.

Me and Michael Zapzic (doing an excellent Kevin Smith face), also from Comic Book Men.

My brother, myself, and Jason Mewes (who is just as nice, ridiculous, and vulgar as you'd hope he'd be in person). He graciously took a ton of pictures with people waiting on line.

A few minutes before meeting Kevin Smith.

Me and Kevin Smith (who thought to grab the drawing right before we had our picture taken).

Big Black Delta pt. II

You can see my first post on Big Black Delta, including my original drawing and thumbnails, here.

I had indefinitely shelved my BBD poster until, seemingly out of nowhere, they announced a string of East Coast summer dates - most notably 3 intimate gigs in NYC: 2 at Pianos and 1 at Brooklyn Bowl.

Once we got tickets for the Pianos shows, I realized I had an opportunity to polish the poster I'd made, and make some show-specific versions of it. Looking at my framed NIN 'Wave Goodbye' posters for inspiration, I decided that I would make a general tour poster and 2 variations on the general one for each Pianos concert (August 9th and 17th respectively) - again, thinking like a fan, and thinking about what's appealed to me in the past.

The generic poster has no glitches, while the 2 Pianos versions have their own unique glitches in the illustration and in the text, not to mention their own slightly different color schemes. The awesome BBD logo in the bottom right was designed by the incredibly talented Caspar Newbolt of Version Industries, who has done amazing work for SONOIO, 65daysofstatic, Louis C.K. and many others.

U.S. Tour Poster

U.S. Tour poster graciously signed by the entire band: Jonathan Bates, Mahsa Zargaran, and Chris Hornbrook.

Pianos 8/9/12 Poster

Signed by Jonathan Bates

Pianos 8/17/12 Poster

Signed by Jonathan Bates:

My flyer for the 8/17 show which earned me a couple of free beers from the venue.

I didn't attend the Brooklyn Bowl show (which apparently had the band going on at 2:30am or so), but I was lucky enough to attend both Pianos shows obviously... and what shows they were. The first gig was more empty, subdued and intimate, while the second had a packed crowd of people ready to dance. Funny how a Thursday versus a Friday show makes a difference. Both nights were amazing, though, especially since both included new material which sounded great. In any case, I haven't danced like that in years. Needless to say, I can't wait to see BBD again. Look out for their next album to be released some time this October or November.

http://bigblackdelta.com/

Note: If any fans are interested in the above posters, I'm happy to print extra copies and send them your way, I only ask that you cover shipping and printing costs.