It’s that time of year and what an awesome year it’s been! Settling down to some time with family and friends and a nice break to recharge those creative batteries!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday and I look forward to 2012. Bigger, brighter and beautiful!

Jason.

Every now and then ideas pop into my head and I just have to put the idea down onto paper. Zombie Astronaut was something I came up with about a month or so ago and it just so happened that it was perfectly timed for Halloween! Zombie films,  zombie television show, zombie games and well basically anything to do with those crazy undead creatures instantly captures my attention. Even some of my earlier sketches and a couple of my illustrative pieces on this site feature a few zombie creations.

The idea behind the poster was to replicate something similar to the photos that the real astronauts have taken of themselves. It was going to feature a zombie posing for the camera much like this photo below:

NASA Astronaut, Michael T. Good. This is NOT who I based the illustration off of!

I liked the thought of replicating this but as I progressed, the idea of zombies not needing oxygen popped into my head and how terrifying that threat would be in space.

In the past, I would create my illustrations mostly by sketching first, scanning the image and drawing using Adobe Flash. For this particular illustration I wanted to work entirely within Photoshop as I’ve been trying to get used to the different brushes and more particularly the detail you can get from using a stylus. I went to town with the gore on this one and with the help of a few blood brushes created some decent splats and sprays. I built up the image using layers of shading and then added dirt/grunge and blood on at the end. This enabled me to go back and make any adjustments on any layer I wanted. A really handy tip if you ever make a mistake and have to go back to redo anything.

With the title of the piece I was inspired by the look of The Warriors font with it’s rough spray paint style and The 1985 Twilight Zone title. I wanted to create the title rather than use a font so I decided it was best to try and sketch my version out by hand and once again scan it in. I still haven’t mastered writing using a stylus so this was an easier option for the time being. I refuse to give up the sketching!

Detailed image:

So here’s my poster in all it’s GORY! I hope you enjoy it and have had a fun and safe Halloween! Might get one of these printed and see what she looks like full size!

The scenes in London as most who have watched the news over the past few days have been pretty worrying stuff. I find it difficult to understand what could spark such anger and violence in such a short time. Social media has no doubt impacted this event in both aiding groups to organise looting and also to inform others of developments. So much is happening so fast and as the looting/rioting progresses it’s becoming more difficult to control.

At this time the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better and it just begs the question: For what cause?

My thoughts are going to those caught up in the situation and with my family members currently in London. Stay safe.

I’ve always wanted to do a poster featuring my favourite web-slinger and I can now show you the finished piece! I like to make sure at some stage throughout each project to learn something new and this poster was no exception. I’ve never really gotten into illustrator before so I decided this was a good opportunity to dive in head first.

The entire poster was created in illustrator (all except a few touch-ups with lighting and the text) starting from a sketch I’d scanned in. As Spidey is frequently seen swinging through New York’s amazing cityscape I felt I could take advantage of Illustrator’s new ‘perspective tools’ and create a convincing backdrop. It takes a little getting used to but once you let the perspective do the work for you, you’ll get a better idea of the composition you’d like. Within Photoshop I added a few textures to the buildings, added his webbing and created the glow effect you see around him.

I’ve always sketched out comic book characters as a kid and it’s really where I started in terms of my interest in drawing so to be able to transfer those skills to digital art was a really fun experience!

Saw Duncan Jones’ Source Code a while back and quite enjoyed the film (big fan of his first film Moon). He brings an intelligence to popular science fiction stories without having to go over the top and while there’s plenty of special effects in his films they’re not always dictating what happens next.

I was inspired by the various posters created by others and wanted to attempt a version myself. A lot of the other versions were very detailed so I wanted to create a minimalistic ‘teaser style’ poster for the film that would draw the viewer in but not give any information away. Immediately the visual of the train tracks stuck in my mind with both being parallel to each other and one abruptly ending.

I really enjoyed creating this style of work and it helps clear the clutter in my brain with a simplistic design once in a while!

Click the image to see the full poster!

Okay, so I’m not really into labelling anything as ‘favourite’ but watching Inception I can see why people could call it their favourite film of 2010. It’s one of a few films that has come out over the past couple of years that has made sci-fi sexy and cool without having to ‘dumb’ everything down for the viewer. It’s also one of those films that by watching it a second time you can be ‘gifted’ with another great experience.

I sketched out a few early doodles and I was liking where the idea of tracing the name and the buildings was headed. On a large scale I mapped out the maze one section at a time until the full piece came together.

The idea behind this design was to create something simplistic at first glance but once you get closer you could easily get lost and keep looking to find new twists and turns. I kept the style very monotone to reflect the drawn out colour of the film.

Here is a poster design I had been thinking about doing for a while. A few weeks ago, an episode of the very popular ‘Wonders of the Universe‘ was on BBC2. The episode was called ‘Stardust’ and in it Professor Brian Cox discussed what we are made of and more specifically where we came from.

Amazingly, the answer comes from the death of a sun.

As Professor Cox says,
Our ingredients were cooked in the hearts of ancient suns, thrown out into the universe in their deaths and eventually brought back together to form our solar system by the relentless pull of gravity.

The elements we hold most precious were forged at the moment of these magnificent stellar deaths.

Each week the television show usually pops up on Twitter’s trending list and there are always some great comments that people leave after either being inspired or intrigued by what they’ve just seen. The one you see on the poster design (from @robleen on Twitter) inspired me the most and it beautifully captured the message of the show.

The version that you see here is pretty much as I envisioned it. I’ve been meaning to get back into creating for myself recently so I wanted to start on an idea that was fresh in my mind. I have to add that the work of James White (Signalnoise) was a huge inspiration to me on this poster. I also have to thank Robyn Clark for the awesome Twitter quote!

I’ll be trying to get a proof printed off soon in hopes that I can get a printed run going and sell a few of these to anyone who’s interested!

I wanted to be able to focus on particular genres/categories each week so starting today I present to you some of my favourite sci-fi outer space posters!

Alien - 1979: A classic take on the simplistic yet unknown alien threat. Brilliant design can come from a minimal idea.

Aliens - 1986: The classic 80's style illustration poster beautifully capturing a climactic point in the film. Also wanted to note the contrasting styles of the first and second film and how they relate to the actual styles of filmaking in both. Alien being a very cold mysterious thriller while Aliens a gung-ho action flick.

2001 A Space Odyssey - 1968: A classic poster for a classic film. Why not show off some of your best visuals on the poster, after all the film was made pre Star Wars special effects and its just one of the reasons to get you interested in seeing this film.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - 1979: I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan out there but some of the artwork for the earlier films are stunning. Unfortunately they seemed to get cheesier and more 'made for TV' as they went on.

Moon - 2009: Okay I cheated a little, haven't even seen this film yet. In fact it isn't even out yet!

Zathura - 2005: Space isn't all gloom and doom as advertised in "Zathura's" bright, colourful imagery and kids that just want to explore!

Apollo 13 - 1995: They say an image speaks a thousand words. Tom Hanks aptly proves this point in Ron Howards gripping space flick about the failed mission to the moon.

Forbidden Planet - 1956: I should really have added more than just one of these from the classic days of space horror, but this is one of my favourites.

The Empire Strikes Back - 1980: I had to put a Star Wars film in here somewhere but I was just not sure which one as there are so many to choose from!

So there ya go, and thats just a small handful of posters. I’m sure I’ve missed out quite a few, what others would you recommend?

- Jason