Embarking on another one of my "Universal Monsters" posters is always fraught with a self-imposed set of expectations.
They are by far the most popular illustrations on my site, so if I decide to try and add another one to the series, I'm hoping that it measures up to the others. It would weaken the whole effort if there were a couple that weren't so good.
Of course, if the end result came out really bad, no one but me would ever see it, but from my experience that doesn't seem to happen. No, the ones in the series I don't think have measured up have just missed--they're not truly bad, but they are a missing a certain something that keeps me from adding them to the official roster.
But overall, I'm pretty happy with this one, a poster for the 1953 classic It Came From Outer Space. It presented a different challenge than the rest of them because the "It" in question is not seen that much in the movie, and not at all on the original posters. Seeing a full on, clear shot of the alien would really ruin the effect, so I went for a similar approach the original Universal art department did--you see the one giant, creepy eye, but all the other details are hard to make out.
This poster is a bit more crammed with stuff than the usual approach, but I thought it worked with all the crazy colors.
Speaking of colors, I decided when I moved onto the 1950s era, sci-fi Universal films, the posters would be in color, as opposed to the monochromatic look for the 30s and 40s monster ones. So I had to continue that here, and overall I'm pretty happy with the results.
They are by far the most popular illustrations on my site, so if I decide to try and add another one to the series, I'm hoping that it measures up to the others. It would weaken the whole effort if there were a couple that weren't so good.
Of course, if the end result came out really bad, no one but me would ever see it, but from my experience that doesn't seem to happen. No, the ones in the series I don't think have measured up have just missed--they're not truly bad, but they are a missing a certain something that keeps me from adding them to the official roster.
But overall, I'm pretty happy with this one, a poster for the 1953 classic It Came From Outer Space. It presented a different challenge than the rest of them because the "It" in question is not seen that much in the movie, and not at all on the original posters. Seeing a full on, clear shot of the alien would really ruin the effect, so I went for a similar approach the original Universal art department did--you see the one giant, creepy eye, but all the other details are hard to make out.
This poster is a bit more crammed with stuff than the usual approach, but I thought it worked with all the crazy colors.
Speaking of colors, I decided when I moved onto the 1950s era, sci-fi Universal films, the posters would be in color, as opposed to the monochromatic look for the 30s and 40s monster ones. So I had to continue that here, and overall I'm pretty happy with the results.
2 comments:
Nice piece! The color really helps capture the feel of that 50's sci-fi cinema! I need to buy some more walls to hang up more of your stuff!
No wonder the posters are so popular. You obviously love doing them, you put a lot of thought into them and, of course, you're talented! Thanks for sharing!
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