Not that I’d like to promote or in any way put focus on this reality television show but my recent poster design is in fact all about Big Brother. Or rather my problem with it.

Not since the first series had I managed to ‘enjoy’ the format of shoving clashing personalities in a house for the summer, so imagine my delight when last year I heard that it was to be terminated! Fantastic I thought, we’ll never have to worry about constant updates on Facebook or Twitter about who said what to who and what they did next! Oh but I was wrong, the lovely Channel 5 (UK based) decided to take the reigns and deliver us the same drivel that we’ve seen for the last ten years.

So now that I’ve finished ranting and believe me I could go on, I decided to put pen to paper (or rather mouse to Photoshop?) and create my word of warning to all those persistent in watching people sleep until the wee hours of the morning.

Enjoy, but let it serve its purpose!

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!

If you haven’t seen ‘NIMH’ and you’re a fan of animation then I can’t recommend it highly enough. Don Bluth’s work was rivalling that of Disney’s at the time and presented a more sophisticated and somewhat darker style of animation that respected it’s audience rather than dumbing itself down.

So why all this rambling about The Secret of NIMH and it’s style? Well while searching the internet to see if there was any news of an upcoming ‘Blu-ray’ edition I found this unfortunate image of the DVD release:

Not sure where to begin here. Firstly this looks about as far as you can get from the film, it doesn’t capture the mood or anything about the story but places the now bright, colourful and somewhat cheaply illustrated main characters smiling all together with not a care in the world. This couldn’t be further from the truth in terms of plot and animation style.

It’s not just the artwork that suffers. It shows how much as a society we closet our youth from anything that might be somewhat ‘real’ or intriguing. The design is clearly advertising the film as something it’s not and this false advertising ruins the film for an audience expecting to see something completely different. Ironically The Secret of NIMH does deal with issues that everyone can relate to. From death and the scientific testing of animals to love and a mother’s courage to protect her family at any cost this film inspires and respects its audience enough to enjoy it on many levels. It’s thought provoking even for a child and Don Bluth’s animation is the perfect tool to distance the child from a harsh reality but at the same time still teaching.

Now if I can show off one of the posters for the film on it’s original release:

This poster filled me with wonder and curiosity. There’s so much going on, so much detail and character in the illustration that it immediately captures my attention. More than that, it tells the story of a struggle, not every thing’s fluffy and light and ‘full of Disney songs’.

Even in An American Tail, regarded more as a Don Bluth film with a wider appeal, the poster artwork was impressive and detailed. It tells the story in one frame simply and effectively:

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the DVD release:

More and more I find artwork that looks lazy or cheaply put together without any storytelling ability. I always thought the phrase was, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’… and I can only see about one.

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.

Although designing is my passion, I like to try my hand at a few other creative hobbies. Photography has always been an interest of mine and over the past few years I’ve started to become more and more interested in capturing ideas or what I see through a lens. I’d say that my photography tends to capture my ‘graphic design’ eye in terms of composition and what subjects I usually choose to shoot but recently I’ve been getting into macro photography and a whole new world just opens right up!

Currently I’m using a Canon 400D with a standard 18-55m lens. With the standard macro setting you can get fairly close but not on a 1:1 ratio and unfortunately at this time I can’t afford a decent macro lens but with the use of a reversing ring I can get incredibly close for just a small price!

What is a reversing ring you might ask? Well I found this little piece of info on Wikipedia:

Reversing the lens using a “reversing ring”. This special adapter attaches to the filter thread on the front of a lens and makes it possible to attach the lens in reverse. Excellent quality results up to 4x lifesize magnification using fairly cheap, “standard” (not specially designed for macro) lenses can be produced. For cameras with all-electronic communications between the lens and the camera body, such as Canon EOS, reversing rings are available which allow all camera functions, including open aperture metering, to be used.

There’s also plenty of resources online about taking macro photography and for me the best way to discuss my photography is on Flickr. There are hundreds of macro photo groups where anyone can post their photos, discuss and even enter monthly competitions. The key is to keep taking photos, you’ll soon find what works and what doesn’t.

So it’s as easy as that! For anyone like myself who is just starting out with photography and wants to practice macro shots but cannot afford it, it’s such a simple solution. You can easily buy one online at Amazon. Just make sure that the reversing ring matches the size of your lens!

To see more of my macro work check me out on Flickr

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 recently joined Society 6 as it features a variety of great inspirational artwork and enable you to easily setup your online store.

We’ve all seen what brilliant marketing power social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook possess to get the word out about what we are doing, what we are inspired by or just what we are thinking. The additional element to all this is who you follow and the followers you accumulate. If you are using Twitter correctly then you’d more than likely be following (or be followed by) like-minded individuals who share the same interests.

The beauty of this is that you’ve already found your market. You’ve been sharing your work, your inspirations and all the while talking about how or why you’ve been doing it. The people who have been following you now have a vested interest in what you are doing and get to see the end result. Through word of mouth you’ll be doing so much more than just selling a product online, you’ll be selling yourself to your customers and connecting with them.

I really enjoy this type of interaction and I’m certainly noticing more of it as Twitter’s popularity has soared. A great example of this would be Last Exit to Nowhere an internet shop that sells unique t-shirts from “the most memorable places, companies and corporations in cinema history.”

Last Exit to Nowhere's t-shirt site.

It fits what selling socially online is so perfect about. A niche idea that captures the attention of like-minded Twitter users and treats them as one of their own. They don’t pander or  give you long drawn out advertising campaigns to encourage you to buy their products, they simply talk to you asking what you think of a new concept or design.  Follow them and you’ll see a variety of competitions to win t-shirts and discussions about popular films. Of course they’ll let you know when there are offers or deals on shirts but it never comes across as intrusive.

What is so inspiring is that anyone can set this up and give it a go. Whether it be your photography, paintings or design prints your followers can be a great indicator of the audience/market that you may be trying to reach.

Here’s a couple of other artists that I’ve noticed selling their work online through Twitter:

Simon C Page is an amazing graphic designer who’s work rate is second to none. His work has been featured in a variety of design magazines and his online shop has a plethora of work for you to purchase. Find Simon on Twitter @simoncpage

Renato Pequito is a designer/photographer who’s just started to sell his work here but has some more amazing work on his flickr page. Find Renato on Twitter @Kyanos

Scott Johnson is an established illustrator/comic artist who produces prints of his illustrations and sells to people all over the world. Find Scott on Twitter @extralife

So here’s the result of my first effort creating a Na’vi version in Photoshop from one of my photos.

My Avatar – By Jason W Stanley

I started by getting a few tips from some video tutorials online and a couple of DeviantArt tutorials I found and then trying to learn how to adapt a style that would suit me. Using multiple layers and the burn/dodge tool I was able to create a colour I was happy with and start with the finer details. The skin texture is actually leather and I drew the rest of the patterns directly onto the face. At this stage I hadn’t gotten the hang of the Na’vi nose so I kinda smudged it around a bit.

Once I became confident that I could get the colours and the overall look right I needed more ‘subjects’ to experiment on:

These three were a lot more fun to work on as I’d already I’d established a quick and easy method to transform each person. This meant I could now focus on adding the ‘little’ touches and details or trying to create a Na’vi from a different perspective rather than just a profile shot. I used various animal textures such as a Zebra, Tiger or an average tomcat to give me striped effects on both the skin and the hair. The third image here (Avatar Jess) was the most enjoyable to do as I found the better the quality of image (also black and white) created a decent canvas for me to work on.

Inspiration

The film wasn’t the only source of inspiration what with the web (Flickr in particular) springing up hundreds of Na’vi Photoshop manipulations. So in keeping with the apparent Avatar addiction I have, I thought I’d share a few of the other Na’vi manipulations I managed to find while looking for inspiration and tips online.

Ich als Na’vi, tags – by Dorothee Rieß

avatar – by Yana =)

Sophia Na’vi caffeineandpixels

My Avatar – By nevnarien

Conan and Andy Avatar – By the_keiser

AVATAR… – By Fahadi

Avatar – By Junior Codi

angelina-AVATAR – comparacion – By benjja1

My na’vi avatar – By elenaledesma

Transforming Into a Na’vi – By Gerass

Avatarified! – By Brady~

For Frédéric – By juliempg

AVATAR… – By Fahadi

Myself as an Na’vi (Avatar) – By Danny.Boy_88

A while back I read about James Goodridge, an illustrator who actually designed a poster for the film but was eventually rejected. His style of artwork for film posters is quite iconic and provides a very unique alternate look for the film.

On the left, James Goodridge’s verison and on the right the official Inglourious Basterds poster.

What fascinates me are the different ideas and interpretations artists can get from films and use in their poster designs. Unfortunately to hire many different artists to design the poster of just one film would be a costly project and honestly wouldn’t be that necessary as its the job of the designer to capture exactly what the director/producers want in the first place.

Luckily, Quentin Tarantino, Upper Playground and The Weinstein Company have teamed up to present, The Lost Art of Inglourious Basterds — This creative team has assembled the following select group of accomplished artists, David Choe, Sam Flores, Estevan Oriol, Grotesk, Jeremy Fish, Patrick Martinez, Alex Pardee, Dora Drimalas, Munk One, N8 Van Dyke, Rene Alamanza, Morning Breath and Skinner Davis, to create their own poster art based off their interpretation of the Oscar Nominated film, “Inglourious Basterds” artwork.

The Upper Playground Art Gallery in Los Angeles will be previewing this artwork on February 18th 2010 from 6pm – 9pm as a fundraiser for The American Red Cross to help the victims of the Haiti Earthquake. You can purchase prints of these posters (apparently only six of each will be made) for $300 which will be signed and numbered by Quentin Tarantino.

Few shout outs to /Film, Unreality Magazine and FirstShowing.net for some of the info.

- Jason