‘Hope starts with her’
Personal piece on the release of Captain Marvel. All the artwork in the build up to the movie seemed to focus solely on Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel Suit. I wanted to capture her as a god - heavily inspired by the intrigue and mystery of Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN 78’ teaser poster.
Painted over 70 hours from iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and brought into Photoshop CC for heavy lifting.
‘Mourning Marion’
One of the most quietly striking scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark has always been one of my favourite Spielberg shots and what started out as a colour study to get myself painting one day developed into a ‘whole hog’ painting.
Painted in Procreate (about 10 hours) with an Apple Pencil and iPad Pro starting out with a detailed under-drawing and then painted using gouache brushes. Brought into Photoshop CC at the end for some minor adjustments.
Private commission commemorating the 25th Anniversary of The X-Files. The image features over 25 references to 25 different episodes of the show.
Painted using Procreate on the iPad Pro and Photoshop CC with a Wacom Intous Pro on iMac 5k taking between 120-150 hours to complete from referencing, sketching, painting and final detailing.
This is a private commission and is currently not for sale.
'Every piece of me'
An alternative poster for Paul Thomas Anderon's latest film, Phantom Thread, focuses on Alma (played by Vicky Krieps) as muse to Reynolds Woodcock (played by Daniel Day-Lewis). I set out to capture the sacrifice she makes in giving herself entirely to Reynold's art and felt a human/mannequin hybrid captured this notion perfectly. The piece will make a little more sense once you've seen the film but suffice to say that the mushrooms aren't just purely for decoration here.
Sketched in Procreate on an iPad Pro and then painted in Photoshop CC with a Wacom Intuos using Kyle T Webster's 'oil silk' brushes amongst others (you can get Kyle's brushes as part of the CC package now).
Poster Posse invited me to contribute to a 2001 50th Anniversary tribute and I was delighted to be involved. I spent weeks pouring over all of the alternative film posters produced over the years, 'Making of' videos and books (I highly recommend the Taschen book) and ultimately I came to the conclusion that in 50 years pretty much everything has been attempted.
Liberated somehow in not having a 'Eureka!' concept in my mind I set out to make a poster that I as a fan of the film would like. I love the Moon sequence where the second monolith is examined by the astronauts and from there I couldn't get that spellbinding opening sequence out of my head, so, I put both of them together. Prof. Brian Cox might have a thing or two to say about the alignment and positioning of the Sun/Earth and Moon but it looked striking so I went with it.
Sketched by hand and then fleshed out in Procreate on an iPad Pro, all the heavy lifting on this one was done in Photoshop CC with Kyle T Webster's wonderful array of brushes. Hand-drawn from start to finish using pen,paper,iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and a Wacom Intous Pro.
PosterSpy ran a creative brief in Dec/Jan 18' to coincide with the release of Martin McDonagh's newest film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.
A defiant promo image of Frances McDormand’s Mildred Hayes stuck out for me from the start and it in turn then seemed logical to portray the men who would seek to interfere (rightly or wrongly) in her quest for justice. I had planned on putting her ex-husband (played by John Hawkes) in but the composition became too crowded.
Its companion piece 'Fire with Fire' is much simpler and perhaps conveys the emotion of the film more accurately in my opinion. The tone of this poster is more frenetic as a fire (would be a SPOILER to say of what although it is in the trailer) rages off-screen. The blaze illuminates the previously murky landscape and embers dance around the night sky. The three billboards of the title can be seen in the fog in the background alluding to Mildred’s transformation of the signage from derelict to divisively direct.
Characters were sketched out in detail and the composition outlined on an iPad Pro using Procreate and then transferred across to Photoshop CC to finish on a Wacom Intuos Pro.
Prior to the release of Denis Villeneuve's sequel to Ridley Scott's classic film, Roger Deakins stunning cinematography inspired me to create this scene (hinted at in trailer) involving Ryan Gosling’s ‘Officer K’ and Ana De Armas’ ‘Joi’ embracing.
Designed to be a companion piece to 'Downtown Deckard' my intention was to echo the atmosphere and and palette of Roy Batty’s ‘tears in rain’ scene from Ridley Scott’s original masterpiece.
The 'Variant' poster was created to reflect the diverse colour palette of 2049 v the mirroring of the colour palette from the original in the first compositon. The blues of the City v the oranges of Deckard's Vegas hideout.
Painted by hand digitally using a Wacom Intuos Pro and Photoshop CC using brushes from Kyle T Webster's Megapack.
Variant is available to BUY HERE.
'Remember Me' Alternative poster
In my opinion, Michel Gondry's film is one of the great romantic films of the 21st century. Bold and beautifully inventive, Gondry creates a beautiful world of memories inside the mind of the heartbroken, Joel (Jim Carrey).
I wanted to create a piece that evoked the frantic nature of Lacuna Inc.'s attempts to wipe Clementine (Kate Winslet) from Joel's mind. By allowing for some negative space in the left side of his brain to represent something blank and hidden from other memories - I wanted to highlight the scramble by Joel to hide Clementine somewhere safe so that he might remember her when he wakes up.
Sketched in pencils and then scanned into Photoshop, I wanted something loose and colourful for the memories so I used watercolour (Kyle T Webster's wonderful watercolour brush set) to contrast the monotone of Joel's face.
Available to BUY HERE.
When tasked with creating an alternative poster for Poster Spy prior to Episode VII I took a stab at predicting and representing one of the big story arcs. Obviously, with Han (Harrison Ford), I got lucky. There was so much Rey/Kylo/Finn imagery in the build up to the film I felt that that the scruffy nerfherder was under-represented.
Doing my utmost to avoid the 'floating heads' that so many posters had done so well - and once Struzan had done one-what's the point? -I decided to depict General Solo looking wise and authoritative in front of the fastest 'hunk 'o junk in the galaxy', the Millennium Falcon. I was inspired by the old portraits in the National Portrait Gallery in London and wanted a pose that evoked this classic feel.
The initial sketch of this concept was on a post-it note which I scanned into Photoshop and I drew Han and the Falcon digitally (using a combination of Kyle T Webster & Frenden pencil brushes) and then painted the rest.
Sketched traditionally with pencil and paper and then scanned into Photoshop for painting, detailing and finishing, 'Downtown Deckard' was the first big challenge of my fledgling career as an illustrator. This piece is an attempt to provide the viewer with a unique perspective of some of the opening scenes of Ridley Scott's classic film noir utilising elements of futurist Syd Mead's designs from pre-production and characters and shots from the film.
My intention was to layer in as many references to the film as possible without over-loading the frame. Deckard (Harrison Ford) is the focus of the piece and I used foreground elements such as the traffic display (foreground left) to hold your eye on the bottom of the frame. Eagle-eyed fans can spot 'Gaff' (Edward James Olmos), Deckard's spinner (far right), 'The Snake Pit' where Deckard finds 'Zhora' (Joanna Cassidy), the subway where Zhora attempts to evade Deckard, references to words used in the Voight Kampf test in the Chinese-writing neon signs, 'Hannibal Chew's (James Hong) 'Eye World' and a fleeting glimpse of Rutger Hauer's 'Roy Batty' if you really squint!
This piece was sold to a private collector and no further editions are available.
I was delighted to work alongside Poster Posse/MEOCKA for Warner Brothers to design an official poster for the digital marketing campaign for Dwayne Johnson starring monster mash, RAMPAGE.
Sketched with pen and paper and then rendered in Procreate on an iPad Pro and finished in Photoshop CC with a Wacom Intuos Pro. Everything you see is hand-drawn digitally using Kyle T Webster's Photoshop brushes.
I was thrilled to be asked to contribute a piece to the officially licensed 'The Thing Artbook' from Universal Pictures and Printed in Blood. I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter's 1982 classic and as always my aim was to create a piece that provided a slightly different perspective on a famous scene. I felt like there was plenty of MacReady (Kurt Russell) inspired artwork out there so I set out to capture the famous blood test scene from MacReady's own perspective. Armed with a photo of my hands and well over 40 shots from that scene I attempted to capture the unease of that scene. It's Palmer's turn and fans will know exactly what happened next.
Sketched (and sketched, and sketched) traditionally and then scanned onto an iPad Pro where I used Procreate to create the colour palette for the scene. I then took this into Photoshop CC where I used the work in Procreate as a template and then painted everything digitally.
Very proud to be a part of this book and you can get copies here.
Clients include: Bleacher Report, Warner Brothers
Every piece begins with a rough concept sketch (usually on a Post-It note or something small) and then I start roughing out details in Procreate on an iPad Pro from there. Most of my early detailing is done in Procreate and when the painting is ready for final rendering I move it into Photoshop CC and wrap it up on a Wacom Intous Pro.
Inspired heavily by the US one-sheet for The Shining in terms of colour and tone,I wanted the poster to be as terrifying as possible. Framed by Dr. Lawrence Gordon’s (Cary Elwes) hand-with saw-from 2004’s Saw, the ensemble features two Stephen King characters in Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and Pennywise (Tim Curry), as well as Regan MacNeil from William Friedkin’s classic, The Exorcist, and Pinhead from the mind of renowned horror author Cliver Barker in Hellraiser. Last but certainly not least my favourite villain, Hannibal Lecter played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs.
Drawn in black/white and red HB/2B pencil in Photoshop CC with a Wacom Intuos Pro.
One of my favourite scenes from Jaws – Brody and Hooper implore Mayor Vaughan to close the beaches ahead of the 4th of July on Amity Island.
Sketched in 2H and HB pencil and painted using ink wash in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos Pro.
I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to Poster Posse's 'Women's History Month' in late 2016. When asked to create a piece that celebrated a woman that inspired me Nina Simone was at the top of the list for her musical genius and fierce work as an activist.
Painted digitally in Photoshop CC.
Beloved but often left in the shadow of titular heroes, my on-going 'Sidekicks' series is a celebration of the heroes behind the heroes. Burt Ward's 'Boy Wonder', Robin from Batman: The Movie (1966); Natalie Portman as Mathilda in Luc Besson's Leon; Salah played by John Rhys Davies in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Robert Redford as 'Sundance' in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Drawn digitally in Photoshop CC and Procreate using 2H/HB pencil and charcoal brushes.
Privately commissioned pieces of Slash from Guns N' Roses and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame are the first two musical icons in an ongoing series.
Slash was drawn digitally in Photoshop CC using pencil/charcoal and paintbrushes and Eddie was draw digitally in Photoshop CC using 6H/4H/2H/HB/2B pencils.
My first alternative film poster was a faithful (as possible....digitally) recreation of the infamous Roger Kastle JAWS poster with a JURASSIC WORLD twist. Prior to the release of the film one of the trailers featured a scene where the Mosasaurus was being fed a great white shark which then prompted me to create this poster in homage to producer Steven Spielberg's classic film.
Original concept was drawn traditionally and then scanned into Photoshop and then painted using Kyle T Webster's oil paint brushes.
