Launch! (2011) Poster

This is the first poster made for Mountainman. The main reason (besides promoting) was to actually set a solid date for the launch as I find it hard to go through with plans. The theme behind the poster is Space Adventurer's as they are among one of my favourite things to draw and in effect has become a reoccurring aspects of future posters.  

As well as being something I like to draw; it is also something I draw on as a major influence in my work- using Genndy Tartakovsky's Sym-Bionic Titan and Ben 10 as constant inspiration and references. What I wanted to do was construct a story within each poster. This would be something new to me as I usual concentrate on character design rather than there possible involvement in an environment. The rocket ship works as a metaphor (I guess.....?) for Mountainman, either succeeding or crushed by alien tentacles before it could reach it's full potential. Man, it really sucks when that happens, but one has to avoid the negative and focus on the positive.

A page of sketches. One of a few, but the main one used for
the further development in Illustrator.

The sketches above are extremely rough, but Illustrator was used to produce cleaner and stronger line work. Illustrator allows me to develop the character further and gives me the ability to create lines that will contribute to the overall image, with the sketches acting as a blueprint. The red lead also helps, where the traditional leads made it harder for me to work on line art in Illustrator. I've been using the same tools for the last couple years- a Rotring 0.5mm mechanical pen and Staedtler lead, either red or blue. My mechanical pen is about four years old;  developing groves in the grip.

Illustrator line art. Moved into Photoshop for colouring.

Many aspects had to be taken into consideration when colouring the two separate characters, I also had to keep in mind that I was constructing a scene rather than a character. Wasn't the greatest experiences as Photoshop as the program kept crashing and truly tested ones patiences.

Coloured image. 

I coloured the two Space Adventurers first, as it would be easier to build the scene around them- tweaking areas if need be. After finalising the colour palette I transfered and placed the characters into Illustrator where the planned background was placed underneath.

Illustrator screenshot. 

Fairly straightforward, but colouring would be the hardest part of the piece. What made it harder was selecting a palette that would work with rather than constructing a strong contrast. The lunar surface was going to be more of a greenish teal rather than the grey selected. One of the more fiddle bits of the poster was the interaction between the rocket and the tentacles. The gradients from the flame and the shadows are definatly things I need to work on in the future. Another area that took up considerable amount of time was the variations in the lunar landscape; this gave the poster some needed depth.

The interaction between the rocket and tentacles. Colouring and final composition
was done in Photoshop.

Overall, fairly pleased at how the poster has turned out, but some areas I defiantly could have done better. However, this was a reasonably good first attempt at something new. This first attempt showed me the importance of planning and early development as one of the key areas that makes the process somewhat simpler and more fluid.

Thank you for reading.

The next article will be about the development of Salaryman, one of the four shirts available in store.