It's been a loooong time since I've posted anything. Completely changing up your art style for a project will do that. This is the piece where I attempted a different style than I'm used to. It's a bit subtle, but it's a tribute poster for one of my favorite films of all time, Back to the Future. Being a huge fan of Mad Men-type retro advertising, I thought it'd be fun to create my very own magazine ad promoting the town of Hill Valley, circa 1955. I wanted to make it as convincing as possible while still hinting at the influence of Marty's visit to his future home town of the past. I'm not sure that even makes sense, but you kinda get the picture. The Delorean is pretty obvious sign, but there's also one subtle hint that Marty was there. Can anyone guess what it is?
Having collected a bunch of ads from that era, the only way I could really sell the idea was to paint the scene just like they did way back then. Since I'm used to vectors, and pen tools, and pathfinders, it really was a challenge to get this to look the way I wanted. I haven't painted anything like this since high school so I definitely was rusty and it took about 5 times as long than the usual poster takes me. But I'm glad I went through it. Although it was an arduous experience with tons of mistakes, it really became a relaxing process and a new challenge.
When my friends saw this laying on my desk, their initial reaction was "where the heck did you find that?", which was exactly the reaction I was looking for. It was good to try something new and not to rely on all the things that are automatic or predictable. As a great man once said: If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything! I hope you dig it as much as I enjoyed making it!
The poster is limited to 150, signed and numbered, is 24" wide by 18" high, and will be available at the Crazy for Cult show starting July 9th at Gallery1988.