Super Punch: X-Men First Class Art Contest

Super Punch has a design a better poster Art Contest for the upcoming X-Men movie and I decided to participate and…Ta-da! This is my entry.

You would not believe how much fun I had doing this. I always have fun participating in John's contests – and no, it's not because there are 4, count em 4, Last Exit to Nowhere shirts on the line (my fave shirt is Nostromo, with my Nexus 6 a very close second). I do it for the challenge and for the fun of it all.

Okay, this may sound like a tangent but hear me out, let me start by telling you how awesome I think my daughter is. She will sit at her computer and open up a program and play. She doesn't ask how do you do this, or that. She. Just. Plays. And she makes some amazing and creative stuff.Where as I tend to be the type who ponders about stuff and I try to find a book that will help me/guide me/show me/inspire me…whatever. So I decided to just see what happens when I open up photoshop, trust my instincts and play – now I am hooked.

Now on to the poster. Most of the current available imagery for this movie is pretty bland, you might find a nice shot of the helmet, you might find a nice shot of the actor but usually not the same shot. So I sketched out several ideas based on the available imagery, then I found an okay shot of Michael Fassbender (an awesome and versatile actor by the way) and I found a nice shot of the Magneto helmet, merged them together and then, as I said before, I just played. So this poster ties into my love of painted posters and my desire to keep things simple, and yeah it's a big head but I like to think I did it with style. I could have probably done more with the title treatment but for me this was about painting and playing.

The one thing I added was a  cooler tag line. I understand where the powers that be are going with the whole "before they were this, they were that" approach, but right in the trailer is this cool line where Erik/Magneto says "Peace was never an option". I think that adds a little menace to the big head shot.

So there you go.

Stanley Kubrick's - The Lord of the Rings Part 2

So here is my book end piece that I did for the current Super Punch contest. This time the focus is on The Beatles. Composition-wise I like it, I also like some of the textures I was able to achieve, but I think I might try re-doing it someday down the road, tighten things up a bit and maybe attempt a Drew Struzan style of poster (one of my favorite poster artists ever).

Stanley Kubrick's - The Lord of the Rings

Super Punch is having an art contest this month and I thought I would throw my design hat in the ring, so to speak. The project is to design a movie poster for a project that might have been - based on the fact that John Lennon had apparently wanted to do a Beatles version of Lord of the Rings to be directed by Stanley Kubrick. So I was trying to decide whose ego would win out on this dream film project, and inevitably it would be Stanley's. The Beatles would have hired him, but it would be HIS film and I don't think he would have wanted a picture of the Fab Four on his poster just to put bums in seats.

So I decided to incorporate Kubrick's love of san serif type and simple iconic imagery, I wanted it to have a little Saul Bass flavour and I also decided to play with the billing block at the bottom to incorporate some of the people, both actors and technical staff, that Kubrick either worked with in the past, or wanted to work with on his failed attempt at a Napoleon film (which was being developed around the same time), I also wanted to include The Beatles good luck charm in the form of Victor Spinetti. And I figured that it would be a United Artists film since The Beatles were still under contract to give them another film.

A lot of fun, I may have over analyzed it all but that's what I do sometimes and that is where the fun is at. I hope to be able to do up another one, before the clock runs down, that would highlight The Beatles - you know, bookend Kubrick's ego with theirs (although I don't think The Beatles would have brought an ego to the project, but I'm sure the film company might have said "where the hell are The Beatles?").

Super Punch - Red Sonya Contest

John Straun at Super Punch ran another contest that was a lot of fun to be a part of, Red Sonya. Again I busted out the watercolour paints, worked on what I thought would be a typically defiant Sonja type pose and away I went.

My family thought I was having too much fun drawing boobs - like I've said before, I just need to practice…

Super Punch - Kick-Ass Contest: Hit Girl

John Straun ran a contest some time ago on his site Super Punch and all I can say is - this is why I need to practice on my illustrations.

I would have to say that John's contests have inspired me to break out of the rut I was in creatively. I'm one of those types who needed a reason to do something (it's a lame excuse but it's the only one I have). So whenever he would have a contest (and this started over a year ago when he had a nose art competition) I would enter, not because I wanted to win, but because it was fun to do.

To tell the truth I forgot how much fun it is to just pick up a pencil and draw. For the most part, when I do something for John's contests, I like to use traditional methods (watercolour, pencil, etc). Although I did go digital for the Knight of Wands piece I did for his Tarot Card project but that was because I wanted to create something that looked like an airport information card.

Knight of Wands

This is my contribution to the Endless Deck, a virtual deck of tarot cards created by various artists from all over the world and curated by Super Punch's John Struan.

The inspiration can be seen here:

[YouTube link]

She's Dead, Jim

The December art contest at Super Punch was SciFi Fairy Tales. My wife came up with the brilliant suggestion to mash-up Snow White and classic Trek, and this illustration is the result.

Our daughter also decided to throw her hat in the ring, so she created this Rapunzel alien abduction illustration.



Even though neither of us won this time around, it was still a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to participating in the January contest!

Slave Leia Nose Art

This was my entry for the November Super Punch art contest. The theme was nose art and I drew inspiration from classic World War II airplane nose art, with a sci-fi twist.

The plane shown is the B-29 Superfortress, the inspiration for the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

I was thrilled when my entry won. Thanks, John at Super Punch!