Aim for the head

I recently entered a competition for a tshirt design celebrating the 2008 Copenhagen Zombie Pub Crawl. Have I mentioned that I love zombies? Oh yes, I do.

This is one of my designs for the competition. The first thing that came into my head when I was doing brainstorming was George Romero, Ben Templesmith and the 70s in this order. George Romero for the obvious reasons, he is the grandaddy of the modern zombie genre. Ben Templesmith because he is my favourite horror graphic novel artist and because his style is so different than anything else out there, it looks like a cross between oil painting and stenciling (check out his website). The 70s because the zombie genre has been affected by this decade in terms of its politics and themes.

So, I decided that my design should have four elements; a) have an evocative image that tells a story of a world gone horribly wrong, b) be atmospheric, c) have a modernised 70s feel, d)refer to the event in some way.

Based on that I chose to give the Little Mermaid (a landmark of Copenhagen) a zombie face, then turn it into a stencil, and throw in a big splash of red color. Simple.

Note that the design looks a bit like the posters for the 30 Days of Night movie, which is based on the graphic novel of the same name, drawn by Ben Templesmith.

Girly stuff

The nature of the job of a graphic artist often means he or she has to do illustrations they normally wouldn't do. Not because they wouldn't like to, simply because it wouldn't be their cup of tea. But it's necessary to be able to adapt to a number of styles based on the client and the target group.

This is an exercise in making something really pop-y with a teenage girl target group in mind. It's also an excuse to try some new photoshop techniques I've been reading. The concept is a cd cover for a pop artist and I think it looks really nice. I imaged the artist sounding like a cross between Avril Lavigne and Fergie and let my personal style change in response to what images and sounds I could see and hear in my head.

I've used a lot of custom brushes, as well as pictures for the instruments and the speakers. The model originally wore a dress, but I drew a pair of pants just below the waistline, I thought it fitted in better with the style I had in mind. The model herself had some manipulation done in terms of levels, color correction and lighting.