This portrait of Vincent Price is nothing terribly ambitious--its just my own take on Price as he looked in the film The House on Haunted Hill--but it ended up being significant later on.
At the time of its creation, I was working at a video store, struggling to get the giant jumbo jet that is a freelance art career off the ground. I was creating new work constantly, thinking I couldn't let up for a second if I ever wanted to start landing work.
My work didn't go unnoticed at the store, and the managers there asked if I wanted to create some t-shirts of famous movie actors done in my illustration style to be sold at the store. That sounded good to me, so I worked up three designs--one of Orson Welles, one of William Powell and Myrna Loy (two of my favorites from the Thin Man movies), and this one of Vincent.
But when I got the shirts made, I told the printer to put the artwork of Price all the way over on the right of the shirt--I thought it gave the shirt an extra little "something", and worked well with the very vertical design of the piece.
For some reason, the printer actually argued with me, trying to convince me I wouldn't want them that way. It got so ridiculous that I almost had to walk out and search for another printer, because they kept trying to talk me out of what I wanted.
Finally, they relented, and I got the shirts made. And you know what? Of the three designs, the Vincent Price shirt was the only one we sold out of.
I kept one for myself, which I still have. I knew I was right!
At the time of its creation, I was working at a video store, struggling to get the giant jumbo jet that is a freelance art career off the ground. I was creating new work constantly, thinking I couldn't let up for a second if I ever wanted to start landing work.
My work didn't go unnoticed at the store, and the managers there asked if I wanted to create some t-shirts of famous movie actors done in my illustration style to be sold at the store. That sounded good to me, so I worked up three designs--one of Orson Welles, one of William Powell and Myrna Loy (two of my favorites from the Thin Man movies), and this one of Vincent.
But when I got the shirts made, I told the printer to put the artwork of Price all the way over on the right of the shirt--I thought it gave the shirt an extra little "something", and worked well with the very vertical design of the piece.
For some reason, the printer actually argued with me, trying to convince me I wouldn't want them that way. It got so ridiculous that I almost had to walk out and search for another printer, because they kept trying to talk me out of what I wanted.
Finally, they relented, and I got the shirts made. And you know what? Of the three designs, the Vincent Price shirt was the only one we sold out of.
I kept one for myself, which I still have. I knew I was right!
3 comments:
THAT is a really, really nice!
Those stupid printers, thinking they're right...you probably met one who though he was an artist LOL I have to watch myself sometimes on the one day a week I'm at Kinkos. It's like I'm Clark Kent but trying to explain to these people that I'm right because, secretly, I'm Superman.
It's sad, really. LOL
Like it! It looks especially like Price around the mouth. It reminds me of when a photgrapher prints a picture form a positive instead of a negative. It gives you a very black and white pic, just like this.
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