EMP Packaging - Big Trouble In Little China

My initial idea for the packaging for this was a Chinese dragon but as you can imagine, the logistics of making a decent looking dragon that works as a box... it didn't work. So I went with a lantern. This is taken from a tutorial I found here: 

http://www.chinahighlights.com/community/video/learn-to-make-chinese-lantern.asp

I adapted this to turn it into a box. To make this you will need:

48 Chinese Envelopes - you can get these on Ebay pretty cheap.

Cello tape.

Double-sided Tape.

Stapler & Staples,

3 Sides of Card - A4

1 Sides of Thick Paper/Card - A3

Chinese Charm Tassle Thing - another Ebay job.

String.

Scissors/Scalpel.

Ruler.

Letraset.

I made it exactly the same as the tutorial on the video, only cut about 1mm off the outside of 16 envelopes to create a slightly smaller octagon. I used this as the bottom half of the box. Instead of attaching the folded cards to the top of this I made a second middle section with the normal size cards. Measured up the necessary lengths, cut the same shape from card. Then the same shape again with the addition of 6cm of tab on each edge to create spacers, then a measured whole on the middle for the figure to sit in. That goes in the bottom. Tape string into the bottom & tie it together in the middle above the vinyl figure so that it hangs straight through the whole in the top. Sorted.

Front Of Box - Text Reads 

"BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA: LO PAN"

"collectable vinyl figure"

Side View.

Full Length.

Box Open.

I think it looks ace. 

Beside My Bones...

I forgot to post the original drawing in the last post.

But To Feel Your Bones...

It occurred to me last night that I don't think I've done any work that wasn't for uni in months. Decided to change that. It was so much fun to do something completely diffferent to what I've been working on solidly. I remember why I like drawing again now. 

Our Time Down Here Design Type Thingamy.

Their new album is incredible. And their new video just came out.

http://ourtimedownhere.bandcamp.com/

Right click & open in new window to get the full size image. This has lost quite a lot of detail by being too small.

But To Feel Your Bones

Beside My Bones

I Would Feel Less Alone

EMP DVD Case For Packaging Digital Files

Knocked up a little DVD cover to wrap up my digital files in for when they're all burnt to disc. I took most of my inspiration for this from Quentin Tarantino/Grindhouse DVD covers and a little bit from retro video games.

EMP (and not EMP) Postcards

As a little addition to link my full size posters with the vinyl toys I decided to make postcards of  the full posters but also with photos of the vinyl toys and the type from the posters. I included the name of the character & the name of the actor that played them & once they're printed they will all be signed & for EMP purposes the cards showing the figures will be numbered as a sort of authentication certificate system. And since it's nearly show time I though it would be good to have some other bits to hand out so I've gone for some prints of my favourite old pieces as well.  

Back

Big Trouble In Little China

Troll Hunter

Small Town Folk

Others

EMP Poster 2: Troll Hunter - Black

In the final crit for this project, year and indeed the entire of my BA degree course the only thing suggested as a change was to make the backing of the Trollhunter poster black in order to keep it consistent with the BTILC poster. I wasn't sure but after using a black backing for the STF poster as well I thought it would be good to have them all on black. I'd tried this before & didn't like it because it added itself to the border and looked like it was cutting into the image heavily, so I switched the border to white - problem solved.

EMP Poster 3: Small Town Folk

No messing around with this one. Get it done. Took my inspiration for various other horror movie posters where the killer is visable in centre frame but is obscured in some way, either by their back being turned or something hiding them to leave some suspense to finding out what they look like. I went for a simple fade out on three edges and the sickle coming forward on the right. I went for a simple colour palette this time. After creating two heavily coloured and heavily detailed posters I felt that I needed to try my hand at something a little more refined. White, grey, black, two shades of blue, red & a flare. I sat the figure on a black background to allow the fade. The typography again is the same in terms of the information text and the title typeface is Arno Pro (display) which is close to the typeface used in the original artwork. I chose to use only a single splash of red so that it really stands out from the rest of the image, it can be easy to use too much red which ruins the balance of a piece and I wanted to keep it minimal and suggestive rather than painting blood all over the place.

EMP Poster 2: Trollhunter - Finished

After hours of fiddling about with different coloured backgrounds, tag-lines, different coloured type, fonts, styles, slanting the type, throwing on textures and taking them off again I decided - no, I'm just going to leave it simple. So I did and I think it works well. I already talked about the illustration in an earlier post so I'll skip that. In terms of the text I wanted to keep it similar to the official typeface and Franchise is the closest I could find, it's very similar. It's all in lower case but looks like uppers. I also wanted to keep the yellow of the Trollhunter title as I think that is something that is really memorable from the original artwork. I found that having the whole title in plain yellow left it a little lost in the imagery, I tried it with a black stroke but that didn't help much so I reversed the two, black with a yellow stroke seems to work well. It doesn't get lost because of the boldness of the black but keeps the yellow that I wanted. I carried this across to the information section at the bottom to bring a little consistency and add more yellow. If you compare the layout of this type with that of my BTILC poster you'll notice that they are pretty much the same. This is to keep the series bound as a set. 

Overall I'm happy with the outcome of this piece, I think that it displays the mood of the film but in my own illustrative fashion and compliments the original artwork well. 

EMP Poster 1: Big Trouble In Little China - Finally Finished

This has been, without a doubt, the most extensive period of time spent on a single illustration I've ever done. According to my blog record I posted the first character for this on the 30/01/12, and that took a few days in itself. So I've been working on this for nearly 3 months and it is finally finished and I am SO glad. I've added in the Kim Cattrall character (You have to have a woman in the poster somewhere. It's a rule.) and I've dropped the guardian simply because of the logistics of fitting him into the frame. Because of his shape he was being really awkward and wasn't fitting properly with any of the other characters and was throwing out the whole balance of the image so in the end I had to cut him from the final piece. I went with a black background & blended that into the bottom of the characters. 

I also abandoned the hand-made text I had after some feedback regarding its inaccuracy and general shoddiness. I tried to keep the typeface as close to the original movie posters/cover as possible as I think it's a fairly iconic part of the imagery for this particular film. So I used the same colour gradient with the same stroke for the lettering. The typeface used for the title is Big Noodle Titling (which frankly sounds like it was made for this piece anyway) which was close enough to the original to be similar but not so 80's as to look as tacky. The typefaces used for the information at the bottom are OSP - DIN ( my favourite that I use on everything ) and I wanted another sans-serif to compliment it and after trying a bunch ended up with Trebuchet. ( I think that's how it's spelt. ) I like the effect that using different weights and sizes of the same font within a line has; I think it really helps to emphasise certain words without being too distracting or breaking the flow. These two typefaces and positioning of the information will be constant across all my posters to create a sense of them being a set.

Overall I'm really happy with the final outcome of this poster. I think that the illustrations have all joined together well to create a strong, balanced image that holds its own but is supported by the typography. I wanted to do justice to the original imagery used and I think that by taking elements of the compositional style and typography that I have managed to do so whilst bringing in my own take on the characters. 

Enough talking.

Here's a picture.

I can't wait until this is blown up to A1.

I also made a tiny body-bag as packaging for my Small Town Folk vinyl today. But it's not quite finished so I'll hold off on the imagery for now.

EMP Poster 2: Troll Hunter - Illustration

This took about 4/5 days to draw and 2 solid days on Photoshop to paint.

I went with Photoshop instead of illustrator, and a more stylised illustration because I'm trying to work with different styles/techniques across the range of posters to demonstrate my various abilities. Outline first, scan, select range, drop the backing out & then paint underneath the outline. Start with a base colour, usually a mid, then go a shade darker, then again & continue to build them up until you get the desired tones in the right areas. Throw in some extra colours, drop some opacities to get the tones/shades coming through. Many brushes. 

The inspiration for this piece (aside from the epic scene in Troll Hunter where he battles the Jotnar) was old movie posters for monster movies. Films like King Kong, Godzilla etc, where the monster towers over everything. 

 

Fee Fi Fo Fum

EMP Poster 1: Big Trouble In Little China - The Third Storm

The third storm.

They all wear the same hats. Just one more vector character to do. Then possibly background. And typography. And composition.

I finished my A1 Troll Hunter illustration today. That's likely to be up tomorrow. 

EMP Troll Hunter - Things In Progress

Packaging Concept in creation.

Trolls live in mountains.

It still needs finishing, the inside needs sorting out, going to add some grass flock to the bottom of the slopes & Troll Hunter lettering on the purposefully flat section on the front. Painted in a mid grey - wash in dark grey - add dry brush of light grey - white on the top.

Poster Illustration in progress.

EMP Poster 1: Big Trouble In Little China - The Third Storm (face)

I'm finding it difficult to do any work because I zoomed in on this & keep laughing at it.

EMP Vinyl Toy - Trollhunter - Jotnar

The third film I've chosen to create an illustrated poster/vinyl toy/other stuff combo for is Trollhunter. For those who haven't seen it, it's a Norwegian dark fantasy about a group of student who go to make a documentary about a bear poacher, but instead get tangled up chasing trolls around with the Trollhunter. It is a superb film. Here's a time-lapse of me making the toy.

The character I chose to depict from this film (sticking with the theme of the 'bad guys') was a Jotnar. A troll over 200 feet tall that the group encounter at the end of the movie. I used a 4inch white 'Kracka' DIY vinyl toy as the base & then applied a huge amount of Sculpey to the head to make it look entirely different. I spent a lot more time on this one with the Sculpey than I did on the BTILC toy & it shows. I sculpted the basic shape of the head and then applied extra features such as lips & ears from smaller sections, also applying extra layers to create contours on the cheek areas & forehead. I then used a pencil & a knife to push impressions into the Sculpey as there was a lot of wrinkles to depict.

I baked it, as before (10 minutes, 95degrees C) only this time I used a ceramic tray with a little bit of water in the bottom instead of a metal tray, this stopped the vinyl from melting but meant that the section of Sculpey touching the water didn't cook properly, so I tipped the water out & re-baked it for a couple of minutes to make it totally solid. After it had cooled I went straight in with a base coat of mid-grey. Once that had dried I mixed up a fairly dark, muddy green wash to overlay & get into all the creases of the face. I followed that up with a dark grey wash & once that had dried I added a mix of light grey & white dry brushing to really pick out some highlights on the face. Spray varnish was applied & left a couple of days to dry. 

I applied grey paint to a polishing...thing. I don't know what it's called. It's all fluffy & your meant to use it to polish cars with. I also added what can only be described as week-old paint pot water to give it a horrible green/grey/yellowy colour. Waited for that to dry, cut it up & used PVA to apply it to the figure, then I singed it with a lighter to make it matted & add a nice brown colour to some pieces.