From The Vault: FMOFU Logos Pt.2 - 2010

This was another set of logo designs I worked up for Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground magazine.

I really loved this font, and desperately wanted to use it for the logo. In many ways, I think the second one, with the FMOF "paste-up" over Underground, was my favorite of all the logos I put together: there was a simplicity to it that really worked for me.

But, as any artist/graphic designer will tell you, your favorite idea is never the one that gets picked...

Dolly For President

Last year, to celebrate the birthday of the wonderful pup Dolly (who belongs to my pals Laura and Ric Menck), I worked up a poster for as-yet-unrealized movie starring Dolly, all about her work as an ambassador for Animal Rights, a cause near and dear to my heart.

It was called Dolly Goes To Washington, and I envisioned it as one of those muckracking-type movies, filled with lots of Big Time Movie Star cameos, all of them interacting with Dolly as she heads to the nation's capital to deliver a message about the rights of all animals.

So this year, I decided a sequel was in order: after Dolly went to Washington, the groundswell of support was such that she decided to run for President. Hence, Dolly For President!

The two main actors playing Laura and Ric, Cate Blanchett and James Cromwell, are back, but with a whole new cast of actors who are known for their support of the cause: Pierce Brosnan, Edie Falco, Lea Michele, Alicia Silverstone, Charlize Theron, and Forest Whitaker. The script for this movie was so good it even managed to get the legendary Doris Day, an impassioned animal advocate, out of retirement to play a sympathetic senator.

I had a hell of a time coming up with a design, and I had to let it simmer in my head for several days. Then I cracked it: I mimicked the design of, all of things, the poster to The Great Escape, with its comic book panel-esque structure explaining the movie's plot. That allowed me to have some fellow dogs (all pulled from my "Hello Doggie" series of real-life pups who needed homes) represented, an element I definitely wanted on there.

Happy Birthday Dolly!

Abbott & Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff

Even though I generally consider this "Universal Monsters" poster series tapped out, every so often I get a hankering to work up another one, and I get really energized to do it if I can find a way to jazz it up a little.

Aside from being a big Abbott & Costello fan, I've always had a soft spot for this particular A&C film, because the title is so weird and ungainly--after all, how many films have one of the actors from the cast listed in the title?

Since this series is monster-centric, focusing on Karloff rocking a very serious look only made sense. Bud & Lou probably deserve a little more poster real estate, but I thought giving them a doubled-inset headshot helped work towards that.

I don't think this one ranks as one of the best of the Universal Monster posters I've done, but it was a lot of fun to work on and I always like adding to the series...

Keep Moving or You're Dead

This faux-paperback book cover took forever to get out of the starting gate--I had the figure and the title, but for whatever reason I just couldn't put together a design that worked at all. I got so frustrated and gave up on it, going off and doing some errands and working on other projects before trying again.

That must have done the trick, because after sitting down again I started adding those Russian "Constructivist"-esque bars of color and once I did that the whole thing fell into place: the plot, the tagline, the colors, etc. I even went and found a Russian-esque font just to make it a little more fun.


Fun Fact: The model you see here was the original illustration I created for the Strip Till Dead cover, but ended being discarded when author Mike Gerrard wanted to use the original model I dropped in for the STD cover rough. I never throw anything away.

From The Vault: FMOFU Logos - 2010

Last month I posted the logo I created for the new Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground magazine. It was a fun project, even though I ended up creating a ton of other logos that were ultimately rejected.

These are the first three I whipped up--and since there were so many different ways to go about this, I decided to just use one font for the first three tries and work up variations on that.

Since Underground was supposed to have a looser, scrappier feel than its legendary parent, my first concept was to use the classic FMOF logo and apply it like it was a taped-down piece of paper, giving the logo the look of a paste-up, a relic of graphic design from the pre-dekstop publishing days. And maybe the blood spatter was from an errant xacto blade used during the paste-up!

Capital G Web Illustrations

Via the Concept Farm ad agency, last year I produced this series of illustrations for the banking firm Capital G to go on their new website.

I've done a number of illustrations for Cap G before, but they were strictly portraits; these images were a lot more complex, making them an enormous challenge, both artistically, technically, and mentally.

I say mentally because some of them, like the shot of the group sitting around a conference table, took a massive amount of concentration--just keeping all the details in mind was a lot of effort. But I had a huge feeling of pride when I completed them.

I've done a lot of work for Cap G, I hope I get to do more!

Find Becky Hanson

As some of you know, my old and trusty Mac sort died on me last week, so I was playing catch-up all week after getting an all-new set-up. Luckily, I'm usually a week or two ahead on all my blogs, so even when I was sans computer I didn't miss any of my self-imposed deadlines.

Now that my schedule is (mostly) back to normal, I had time to whip up this new faux-paperback book cover, the first piece of artwork I've done on a new computer in over a decade. I'm excited about having a Mac more in tune with the 21st century, and I think this fun cover reflects that. Find Becky Hanson!

Susie's Wild Night

This faux-paperback book cover really only works for me in terms of the title, in terms of font and design.

I couldn't really get the other elements to my satisfaction, but at a certain point I gave up, satisfied that I could re-use the title treatment for another project down the line. Its learning experiences like this one that I think help me get better as an artist.

Pine Magazine - Spring 2011

This is the cover to the Spring 2011 issue of Pine, the alumni magazine for Northern Arizona University. I was asked to a modern version of the iconic (and much-parodied) Norman Rockwell painting Thanksgiving, but instead using some professors and students from the university involved in a specific school program.

I can say with little doubt that this was probably the single most complex illustration I've ever had to create--I had to use the same basic set-up as Rockwell, but had to illustrate six specific people, two generic "seat fillers", plus all the accoutrements--table, drinking glasses, plates, books, silverware, diplomas, laptops, chairs, wall, floor, curtains, wallpaper, and window. I created each piece separately and then put it all together like a big puzzle, moving each piece around so every element could be seen properly.

To make things even more fun, the company that produces Pine didn't have much in the way of reference photos of everyone in the poses you see above. So I had to use the faces from the photos they did have and graft them onto other bodies that fit in the various poses vaguely approximating the ones in Thanksgiving. Not easy, I must admit.

Luckily, I had a decent amount of time to work on this and get it right, and in the end I was really proud of the piece. It was run on the inside as well, with less typography on top of it:

I also created some spot illustrations featuring some of table elements separated out that were used through the text of the article:

While I'll admit this assignment was more of a technical challenge than a creative one, I am nevertheless very proud of the final result. I take great pride in being a professional commercial artist; more a craftsman than an artiste, per say, and being able to produce something this complex and specific on time was a huge undertaking. I'm thrilled it all came together and to finally see it in use!

Death Be A Lady Tonight

This faux-paperback book cover came about in a very unusual--dress first!

My pal Laura Menck posted pics of a dress she found on Etsy on her Facebook page, the dress you see above--a vintage-y number with that cool Vegas Strip print on the blouse. As soon as I saw it, I realized it would make the perfect outfit for a character on one of my covers, so I went about "filling" the dress (there was no model wearing it in the Etsy pics) with a real, live femme fatale.

With that dress in place, the setting and the title all fell into place with little or no effort. I played with the colors a bit, but all in all this one came together it was like falling off a log. Personal note: of all the fake authors I've created for these things, "Morty Meyers" just might be my all-time favorite.


Special thanks to Darlin' Tracy for showing me the photos in the first place, this cover was a real team effort!

From The Vault: Disaster Preparedness Pt.2 - 2003

These were the final six illustrations I did for a research paper about disaster preparedness in the case of a terrorist attack.

As you can see, the detail is minimal, but the bright colors and circular shape make the illustrations not all that bad to look at in the end.

Thankfully, none of this has come to pass--let's hope it stays that way.

Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground

The new magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground debuted this week, so I finally get to talk about the work I did for the mag, as both artist and writer!

My pal and then-editor of the mag April Snellings asked me to design a logo for FMOFU, which you see above. Here's what it looks like on the cover and on some trade ads that have been appearing in the last few months:

The little skull I used in place of the "o" was replaced on the final cover by a photograph, but the essential design is the same (my little skull drawing can be seen throughout the insides, as a button at the end of various articles).

I also have a full-page ad in the mag, which I designed just for the occasion:

I was very excited to work for my pal April (who I call "Chief") and of course its great to have some of my work on the cover of a magazine, especially as the logo: that means it will be seen on every issue. As a lifelong monster fan, I'm really tickled I got to do something involving the classic FMOF franchise (I created about two dozen logo treatments while working on this, so maybe some of those will show up on this blog's "From The Vault" Friday segment).


As I mentioned above, I did some writing for FMOFU too, so head on over to my Rob Kelly Writing blog to check that stuff out. It's a blog crossover!

Sacajawea

This is a portrait of Sacajawea I was asked to do by Scholastic Books for a proposed series of children's biographies of famous people. They were looking for a cover artist for the series, so they hired a number of different artists to do a portrait of the same subject and would pick one to do the cover artist for the series.

Sadly, I didn't get the gig, which of course is a big disappointment. But overall I have no complaints--I've landed the majority of the jobs that I was in competition for, so I was bound to lose one eventually.

Both Scholastic and I were happy with the piece; maybe I'll get to do something for them in the future.

Hard-Boiled Horror Tales

This is the cover to Hard-Boiled Horror Tales, a new comic written and drawn by one of my oldest friends, Doug Slack. Its currently available in print and online (ooh! technology!) over at DreadCentral.com.

I'm mentioning this here because Doug asked me to do the logo for the book, as well as the main story's pseudo-title card:

I love doing logo work, especially when its for something super-fun like Doug's nastily violent, gory, and profane comic. If those three things appeal to you, go check the book out over at DreadCentral or the Hard-Boiled Horror Blog!

Souls In Satan's Servitude

I've been trying to branch out a bit genre-wise for these faux-paperback book covers, and this one is another example of that: instead of a crime noir or nudie book, Souls in Satan's Servitude is, as the tagline indicates, a "shocking expose" about people who have decided to join a cult that worships Satan.

The author is a doctor, of course--giving this lurid little tale of sex and blood an air of legitimacy.

From The Vault: Disaster Preparedness - 2003

This was probably the weirdest assignment I've ever had--illustrating scenes from a research paper about disaster preparedness in case of a terrorist biological attack. Fun stuff!

I don't remember how the person who hired me to do these illustrations found me, but they told me they needed twelve scenes from the paper turned into graphics which would be interspersed throughout the text.

The paper involved some sort of high-tech "disaster suit" that people could activate in the case of an attack--a mini-alarm goes off, you take some pills, etc. I guess the final panel represents running like hell.

I didn't have a lot of time to do these, as the lack of detail shows. I ended up doing twelve total, we'll see the other half next week!

Killer Covers

This is a banner I did for the blog Killer Covers, run by my friend J. Kingston Pierce, dedicated to classic paperback book covers.

J. asked me to design a banner for the site, using some real-life paperbacks as decoration. Not only did it sound like fun, but J.has been a big booster of my site, something I very much appreciate--in fact, it was his recommendation that led author Mike Gerrard to contact me about Strip Till Dead, and we know how that turned out!

J. also did an interview with me about my work and some of favorite paperback covers, which you can find at Killer Covers today.

Thanks to J. for all his efforts on my behalf, and for asking me to do the banner. I'm very happy with it, and I hope it adorns Killer Covers for a long time!

Laura & Dolly

I did this portrait of my pal Laura and her beloved pup Dolly for Laura's birthday last week.

I knew I wanted to keep it really simple and graphic, but that doesn't work too well for dogs--at least, not in Dolly's case, so she ended up getting a lot more attention than the Laura half of the portrait did. And I'm pretty sure Laura's okay with that...

Hellcat With A Holster

I first came up with the title for this faux-paperback book cover and sort of worked backward from there. Inspired by the new movie Hobo With A Shotgun, I thought why not a female version of that kind of story?

From The Vault: Coffee - 2003

Back in 2003 I had hired an art agent, and for a while I sat down to a bunch of advertising art, in a conscious attempt to show potential clients my style would work in that arena.

Some pieces came pretty well, some merely okay--this is one of the latter. The typography is kinda cool, but the actual drawing of the coffee is kinda ehh: it doesn't look like liquid to me, it looks like mud or, worse, river sludge. Starbucks didn't end up with a bajillion locations by selling that!

The Razor's Edge

Wow, it's been almost a whole year since I designed a new Razor's Edge book cover!

As regular readers of this blog will know, W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge is my all-time favorite book (I even have a whole blog about it--of course I do), and every so often I find it a fun exercise to design my own cover for it.

I hadn't planned on doing another one (I did one in December '08 and May '09), but then I saw the above photo while Darlin' Tracy was surfing teh interwebs. The photo is by Edward Dullard and is a shot of Ballycotton Island Lighthouse in Ireland, and I was immediately struck, thunderbolt-like, that it would make the perfect main image for another edition of The Razor's Edge.

Graphic design-wise, I wanted the typography to be a little more modern and rough. Classic books when they are reissued tend to look a tad stuffy because they are classics, esteemed examples of literature with a capital L. So I wanted to go the other way, and make it look a little more current.

I added a half-tone effect over the photo to give a slight old-timey feel (in contrast with the type) and make the image feel more like a memory, which I thought was in keeping with events in the book--the entirety of The Razor's Edge is told via multiple flashbacks, primarily those featuring the main character, Larry Darrell. Larry's story is told to the book's narrator, so even within the flashback structure we are beholden to how Larry remembered the events he's recalling.

I just love doing these Razor's Edge covers, they're pure artistic fun. I'm sure this won't be my last...

A Ron Swanson Mystery

I admit right up front, there were probably better ways for me to spend my time than coming up with a faux-paperback book cover starring a character from Parks and Recreation, but sometimes when I get an idea, I just can't let it go.

I was discussing with a friend on Facebook how much we like the show, and how that clearly Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) is the breakout character: a die-hard Libertarian who nonetheless loves his government job--as long as he doesn't have to actually do anything. An avid hunter, craftsman, and jazz saxophonist, he never met a buffet he didn't like. But Swanson is also, at times, quite sensitive and perceptive about people's feelings, most especially his high-strung and overachieving deputy, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler).

My friend and I were joking that Ron Swanson, in another TV universe, could star in his own 1970's-style cop show, like The Rockford Files. So it didn't take long for me to imagine Ron starring in a series of mystery novels, of which this is the first(?) one!

From The Vault: Where Are You Tonight? - 2003

An early, kinda lazy attempt at a paperback book cover. I like some of the elements here, but I didn't push this enough to turn it into something really worthwhile--I think it needed another pass on the figure, and not have it quite so distorted.

The type is handwritten, something I should try again sometime!