old pirate sketch process

Making of 24 Hour Movie Marathon poster

A post for this year's 24 Hour Movie Marathon here in Auckland, New Zealand. Pretty cool event.
I received a call to create this year's poster, and the client wanted something related to 'staying awake' and some cult movie imagery.

First I did some thumbnails with 2 ideas. One is a steam punk guy holding a clapper board with a blade attached. One of his hand is placed under the blade so if he ever falls asleep he will loose his hand. That same idea was carried to the final artwork. The second idea was a marathon runner running pass the cinema and a lot of cult movie characters came out trying to catch him.

The first idea was liked however the client hated steam punk. So we moved to goth punk style and he wanted a hot girl instead of a bloke.

Another set of thumbnail was submitted, along with a slightly different approach. The girl was holding a mouse trap on her neck and she is placing her finger in the trap. We felt the clapper board with a blade was cooler. The clapper was held by her mouth. But the problem was how could she ate or drank?

I then did a more refined sketch. Now you can see the blade is in the shape of the guillotine and there's a whole for her to place the hand. Now the clapper is attached to a ring on her eyebrow, so she can free her other hand and her mouth to eat and drink.

Then I went research pictures of goth punk hot girls and some cinema photos.

My wife did a good job modeling her hands for me. I wanted the light to go from below to make the whole thing creepy. She model the face too but she didn't want me to show her face here, lol

Before I went to colouring, I did a rough value study just to make sure I understand the light.

Then I set off and started to paint.I want the main colour to be cold, as blue-green, with slightly touch of warm pinks on her face and hands.

Hope you have enjoyed my process.

unfinished

There's beauty in it when you leave certain areas undone. An artist is not a copier, you should be able to decide what information to capture and what not. Don't be a slave to your reference instead become a master over your subject.

female figure studies

There's so much grace in a female figure. In these studies I focused on the legs.

Children's history book illustration

Here's a couple of illustrations I have created for children's history book. One is about the settlers' life in James Town and the other one is a plot from Sir Ivaine who was one of the round table knights of King Arthur.

And here are some of the close ups.