Wednesday 6 April 2011

***Vintage Movie Poster Art Venture***

Good day all! Wow, what a beautifully sunny day it is here in ole London. Hope you're all well & having a positive week?... Good good...

OK, so I think I had mentioned in my 4th post down that for a while now I've been very interested in & an admirer of 1950's-60's vintage movie poster art... or just generally anything film- TV- animation or illustration relating to that period... Well, during some of my frequent interweb hording sessions, I've come across a few very useful places to visit for such things; here are some I hope you find as interesting as I do: >click< <click< >click<

I've been doing a few studies on the look of these retro posters & am hoping to capture some of their aesthetics in my coming works. I love the paint strokes, lighting & texture found in most commercial artwork from this era; particularly the dry-brush/ gouache rendered stuff... Although, at this [still early] stage of my career, I'm working mainly in digital so sadly my skills with traditional painting aren't yet as honed as I'd like them to be... but I'm hopeful to see how well I can blend this look into my work.

As far as poster artists go, typically,  I would of course have to say Reynold Brown is top of my list for his undeniable talent & huge contribution the film industry. Staring at any of his artworks, his sense of composition & technique just seems to pull you right there into the movie; in many cases giving you a more vibrant & interesting representation than the feature itself! But I guess that's the marketing bait film posters/ trailers are designed to put out [basically he does it well]... Another, [although with a slightly more different approach] has to be Drew Struzan; what a gift he has & honestly, what would the promotional face of 80's movies have been without the life & fantasy he brought into his iconic posters?... Regarding these two pieces [left & above], I searched & searched for the names of their artists but unfortunately couldn't trace them...
[if you know, *please* drop me a name]


Anyways, so I roughed out this sketch about a month ago & have been dabbing away at the painting on & off during spare time from commercial work. Will go a little more into it in my next post- no title as yet but I'm all ears...

I'm quite fixated with the retro sci-fi B-movie & fantasy genre, in general & regarding these movie posters; I think more for the fact your imagination can run it's wildest with no real limitations... This will be the 1st of my own hybrid renditions. It's almost done now so stick around & I'll be sure to post the finished painting up next couple days. Doubt I'll be adding any form of typographic elements, but as always would love to know what you guys think.

Enjoy the rest of your day wherever you are!

-M-

2 comments:

Chris said...

Look forward to seeing this progress!

-MaX- said...

Ah cheers. It's pretty much done now; just adding a few highlights. Should be up tomorrow eve [latest Friday morning] = )

Thanks for the feedback Chris!
Ps: I'm now "stalking" your blog btw.

-M-