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 Vinyl Toy - Small Town Folk - Axe Killer (not quite finished)

Killer Mask Guy from Small Town Folk. If you don't know the movie you should check it out, it was shot in my hometown.

This is made using a 4inch glow in the dark DIY Munny toy which obviously I've customised by cutting the ears & tail off, painting & sewing the mask. There's also an axe to go with this but it's not painted yet, I may add some detail underneath the mask and I'm also going to make a second mask as this one is removable. I tried some different techniques to paint this from last time. I used fewer colours for a start which proved to make it a lot easier as you don't have to constantly be waiting for it to dry. I also watched some tutorials on painting vinyl toys and was convinced to use a wash. I painted the dungarees in a cerulean blue, then washed over that a couple of times with an ultramarine to pick out the detail, and then once more with a brown to give a muddy appearance. Then I did a little dry brushing to a couple of areas in a white to make the clothing look worn. After inking in the outlines I added a really light splatter to the front & the hands. The key to painting blood splatter is to be sparing, otherwise it looks really unrealistic.

Face zipped up.

Face unzipped.

 

Left hand side.

 

Back with buttons on mask.

 

Right hand side.

 

The point of getting the glow in the dark vinyl was so that it would shine out of the eyeholes & mouth. Unfortunately taking photos of this has proved to be fairly difficult. I will sort this out.

Graphic Systems Finalisation

Presentation Board layout for my book covers. Seeing them like this, all together for the first time, makes me like them more as you can clearly see how consistent the system is through, especially with the addition of the spine set to the end of the line. All in all I am thoroughly pleased with the work on this project, and even more pleased that I actually enjoyed working on it. Overall I think that the set works really well as a whole unit, each one is obviously slightly different to the last as they are all hand made but the titles fall in the same place and the layout of the pages underneath are all similar. And the back pages are all pretty much exactly the same, save for a few different nudges in layout, but they all manage to retain individuality through the hand made feel & the colour scheme. The illustration I feel are strong, some more than others, such as the pigs head is perhaps a little weak, but as a set of illustrations I think they work brilliantly to capture the feel of the books & the style of the author and compliment both each other, and the colour scheme really well. I'm also pleased with the calligraphy type. Each one is really individual due to leaks & splatter in different places and the shapes of letters but due to style and positioning they look quite uniform with each other.

Graphic Systems: Spineset

My spine set, as it would appear if all six books were lined up next to each other. (The yellow book has been edited since the version shown was created and now the black swan is the same as the others) I think this works really well, the colours are good, and I think they work particularly well as each backing colour appears again as the outline around the authors name, except for the white, but thats used in the name anyway. I also like how the titles have worked out, each one individual with its own splatter patterns but set in the same place. This really looks like an actual set which is obviously what it's meant to do so i'm happy with it.

Graphic Systems: The lost continent Completed

Continuing my speedy work on this project I give you; The lost continent. Here, obviously, we have again a similar layout to the ones designed previously. Today's illustration is of a portable gas stove (as mentioned in the book), I did a little bit of research into it and this is the sort of style that was around in the time that Bryson is taking about. I like the knobs on it, I think they work really well with the white set against the coloured backing. Continued is the type as well. The additional illustration above the authors name is of a corn cob, a reference to small town America & also mentioned in the opening of the book. The colour scheme is staying basic, one main colour, white, and smaller pieces of additional colour. The box on the back on two of the covers has a black circle around on the inside, the other two don't. This is because two of the covers have a lot more written on the back, I'm going to split it three to three to keep it even. The layout on the fronts also been changed around again but this is acceptable as the system allows the movement as long as it's fairly similar.

Graphic Systems: Notes from a small island Completed

After faffing around with the style of illustration for so long and taking forever over the first cover it was time to pull my finger out. So I bashed this one out in a little under... lets say 8 hours. A days work (although I won't be stopping yet). I've added in the blurb here, my own abridged version in fact since the one on the back of the book was near enough a full page. I've also got the swan up in there and I even did all the nerdy stuff like making sure the sections of the spine line up with the ones on the other cover. Next!

Graphic Systems: Notes from a small island

Second book cover. Same illustration style as before with the cut out paper. I'm really pleased with how the boxer shorts turned out and I've picked the colour palette to reflect the UK. However after talking to Neil I think I may need to rethink the colours slightly so as to keep it more consistent with the brightness of the first cover. Other than that I think the layouts are working well. Obviously this still needs a couple of pieces adding such as the Black Swan logo, the blurb and the quotes on the back.

I tried making the backing brighter so that it matches the first cover a bit more but I think it just looks a bit washed out and makes the illustrations look a little lost whereas the textured quality of the first one helps to hold it all together so I think I'm going to stick with that one.

July 3rd 2010: Small Dog Syndrome

Always angry so they are.