Halloween Machine 2015

Once again it's Halloween and so, once again, it's time for my annual post on all things spooky in my little corner of the world.  

I busted out my only-used-at-halloween sewing "skills" to construct some wearable art in the form of a Cyclops costume.  And not just any Cyclops costume; a 90's Cyclops costume.  My friend Colin and I have had many a ponderous conversation about the aesthetic shortcomings of the comic book trends that came to dominate the industry during our formative comic-reading years.  Chief among them: the pouchy, shoulder-paddy, metal-embellished, over-designed nonsense of comic book costumes of the early 90's, particularly the X-Men.  And so, that was the theme we went with, and over the months convinced several of our friends to join us in creating the most ridiculous versions of our favorite X-Men characters' costumes.  We ended up with a team consisting of Bedsheets Storm, Raincoat Jubilee, 60's-era Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Minimalist Wolverine, Chef-Shirt Shatterstar, and Strap Overkill Cyclops.

My Cyclops Costume presented some challenges, particularly the belt pouches and gloves, which I hand-stitched individually.  The intercom button was a tap light spray painted yellow, glazed with red mod podge, and topped with an acrylic black "X." 

Finally, I had to do my annual invitation artwork.  This year I decided on a werewolf theme.  The previous years can be found here, here, here,and here.

Greg White Illustration

Because We Can...Can-can

This latest poster was a commission piece for a friend, but I do actually love Moulin Rouge for its raw energy, spectacle, humor, and of course the beautiful visuals.  It was a pretty straight-forward idea that didn't change much from my initial concept.  Prints are available at my store!

Greg White- Illustration

Madimus Maximus

Just in time for "Mad Max: Fury Road," (which has been my most-anticipated movie of the year and, with any luck, I will finally see tomorrow) this commission piece fell into my lap!  I do love "The Road Warrior" I do, and I took great pleasure in drawing Lord Humongous and Max's V8 Interceptor.  Maybe someday I'll do a poster for "Beyond Thunderdome" which, while ridiculous in every way and light on car-chase action sequences, is a movie I have a deep and abiding love for.

Greg White-Illustration

Star Wars 3: The Legend of Wicket's Gold

By the time I got around to my Return of the Jedi poster, I'd already been putting in mad hours for two weeks straight on the previous posters, but I was to find a new definition of pain and suffering upon this new endeavor.  With only 3 days until I had to go to print for the comic con, and with a monster of a movie with the most messy storyline in the trilogy, I had my work cut out for me, and basically went from 18-hour days to a final 22-hour couch-bound illustrating marathon.

Aside from the usual list of concerns, (color scheme, composition, character design) the problem of story theme and plot structure became problematic in ways I've usually not had to deal with in poster design.  For the first two posters, I started at the base of the image with Luke in one of his iconic, theme-establishing scenes at the start of his journey; first in Star Wars contemplating his hopes for the future as he stares at the duel sunset on Tatooine, and then in Empire where he's at a low point on Hoth and tasked with finding Yoda to begin his training as a Jedi.  The posters then tell the stories in a vertical fashion, introducing characters and events as they occur in the films, and culminating in the climax of the film at the top.  

 Like so

But there is no such theme-establishing Luke thinky scene at the start of Return of the Jedi.  He's basically shrouded in mystery until he shows up in Jabba's living room instigating the long list of shenanigans that comprise the ultimate Star Wars side quest to save Han.  While I love this part of the film, it does deviate from the previous formula that was working so well for my poster designs.  Luke doesn't really get his theme-defining thinky scene until the end of the film as he holds a funeral for Darth Vader ***spoiler alert*** and gets some much-needed closure. 

I wrestled with this for a bit, but with the deadline looming, it wasn't a good time for this poster baby to get its head stuck in the proverbial birth canal.  So I went with my gut and ditched the strict linear storytelling convention.  I also, sadly, had to leave out the ewoks.  Yes, small as they are, there was simply no room for them in the end.  Jabba gluttonously ate up all the remaining space.  But I'm still quite happy with this design.  I think the three posters work well together and I can, (for the time being) not worry about any more Star Wars art.  Heaven knows I'm not going through this much pain for that prequel nonsense. As stated before, you can pick up this or any of my other poster designs at my etsy store.

Greg White- Illustration

Star Wars 2: The Boba Fett Boogaloo

The Empire Strikes Back is one of my all-time favorite movies, and easily my favorite of the Star Wars films.  All the actors seem more at ease in their roles, the dialogue is more natural, the story more complex and nuanced, and the visuals are even more striking than in the first film.  There are so many iconic moments in this film, it made it difficult to know what to focus on.  So I began with the color script and worked up from there.  I tried to capture the film's color palette of whites, airy grays, and blues contrasted with fiery reds and oranges in a single image, and I'm really happy with the result.  Much like the first poster, this one tells the story of the film staring at the bottom of the image and working up to the climax at the top.  

I couldn't be bothered to mess with Chewbacca and his complicated hair issues, nor could I find a space for the droids, so they just had to sit this poster out to make room for Yoda, Lando, and the mysterious, (well, before those sucky prequels) Boba Fett.

Prints are for sale at my etsy store, and you can purchase the entire trilogy (or any 3 posters for that matter) at a reduced price.

Greg White- Illustration

   

May the Fourth be With You

So it looks like I'm back in the movie poster business again!  I had to take several months off from movie posters because I had to work on some other gallery work (which I will post soon) and because I was frankly sick of doing them.  But I found my second wind and then some when the opportunity to show work at a local comic con came up and I realized I needed more nerd fare to hock.  It was a tough turn-around, but I managed to get the entire Star Wars trilogy done in time for the con.  What can I say, the force was with me.  You can buy these at my etsy store for $18 each or all three for $40!

I'll be posting Empire and Jedi throughout the rest of this week, so keep an eye on this space!

Greg White-Illustration

My Phat Status XXI

It's been quite a while since I've felt compelled to write a new Phat Status, but maybe this one will help explain the shortage.  

Greg White Illustration

Halloween Machine 2014!

Hello interneters, and a very happy Halloween to you all.  As anyone who's followed my blog (all 3 of you) for any length of time knows, I'm a pretty serious Halloweener.  And this year was no different.  Despite the fact that I had 2 major jobs land on the same month (a set design for a play and illustrations for an animated video), and I had precious little time, I still managed to hit all my usual Halloween traditions, including creating a costume based on a dated (usually film-related) reference from yesteryear, my annual costumed carving party, and an illustrated invitation to go with said party.  

This year I went as Scrooloose, (maybe the greatest mute, feral, post-apocalyptic child-shaman character ever put to film) from the 1980's classic "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome."  My friend, Rachel, went as Auntie Entity, the somewhat more iconic character played by Tina Turner.  

As for the invitation art, it was done in the same style as I've done in past years like these, this one, and these, but with a nautical theme.  Happy Halloween everybody!

Greg White- Illustration

We Built This City

How do you like that title?  Yeah, that's right.  It's gonna be stuck in your head all day now.  Anyhow, here is the final piece of phase one of my Oklahoma City illustrations.  I'm hoping to get some more done when time permits.  This one was taken from atop McNellie's pub, (the building that can be seen in the background of the Kaiser's piece) and shows the downtown skyline.  This one is probably my favorite of the three because of the color composition.  

Greg White-Illustration

Loitering on Public Property

So here's part two of my new series, which features The Paseo, the hippy-art mecca of my fair city (not to be confused with the hipster-art mecca, which may get featured later on down the road).  You'll notice that a girl quite similar to the one in my last painting makes an appearance here.  Don't be fooled!  Even though she isn't wearing glasses in this piece, it is the one and same character, and that is because the same, gorgeous woman modeled for this piece too.  She is my lovely roommate for those who were curious.

Greg White-Illustration

A Little Nightly Stroll

Guess what movie this piece is based off of?  Give up?  Good, cause it's the first non-movie poster design I've done in what seems like ages.  This was done as part of a series I started that centers on some of my favorite little locations throughout the city.  Three of them are displayed at a Gallery near downtown and I'm planning to do a few more when I can find some time.  That may be a while, though, as this summer has provided me with an absolutely insane workload.  When it rains, it pours.

Greg White- Illustration

I Will Not Be Threatened By A Walking Meatloaf!

"An American Werewolf in London" is one of my all-time favorite flicks.  We're talking top-ten territory here. So with an abundance of time on my hands this summer, I decided to indulge myself and do this poster as a gift to my favorite client--me.  Sure, I'm a demanding perfectionist who forces me to do countless revisions and stay up till all hours, but at the end of the day, I'm a client who gets me and is in sync with my artistic vision.  

How can I accurately put my love for John Landis' "An American Werewolf in London" into words?  It's like the "Jaws" of werewolf movies as the beast is rarely shown, which only makes it scarier. It also features one of the greatest werewolf transformation scenes of all time and is peppered with some fantastic gore and makeup effects that still hold up today.  The film has a pitch-perfect tone that is both darkly hilarious and vicious at the same time, and is one of the few films that works equally well as both a comedy and a horror film.  There is some debate as to whether this or "The Howling" is the better 1981 werewolf film, but to me there is absolutely NO contest.   

 

Greg White Illustration

Lawrence of Arabia

I'm a Lawrence of Arabia freak, so when the opportunity to do a commissioned work for it came along, I jumped at the opportunity.  I think Steven Spielberg summed it up nicely when he referred to Lawrence of Arabia as a "miracle."  It's a film that had every right to fail according to traditional movie standards.  It's four hours long, has no female characters, takes place almost entirely in the desert, has little action for a wartime film, and features an extremely unconventional protagonist.  And yet, it is amongst the most beautiful and celebrated films of all time.  

The poster came together with very little fuss.  I drew the original design as a portrait, but decided to do a B-side for myself in landscape that I actually like even better.  

Greg White Illustration

  

There's Something Lodged in My Blogspot!

After the 7-month, on-again off-again teeth-pulling test of human endurance that was The Warriors poster, it was nice to have something quick, simple, and Hitchcockian to fall back on.  This little piece comes from Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 silent film, The Lodger, and like the last Hitchcock poster I did, it came together in just a few hours over 2 days. Give me a deadline, a Hitchcock theme, and a lot of red pixels and apparently I'm able to crank this stuff out like a frickin' vending machine.  I'm also posting an updated version of the Psycho poster with a title and slightly different dimensions.  I think it works better this way.  Expect to see a few more reposts along with my new work in the coming weeks as I've added titles and tweaked some older posters that needed some sprucing up.  

Greg White Illustration

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Hello friendly friends!  Here's a little poster I did recently for a big comic book-themed event at the Paramount.  I'm an unapologetic comic book nerd, so it was a welcome chance to get to draw some of my favorite super heroes for a gig.  I decided to base them off of the movie versions of the characters in my usual style, but with a vintage comic book design influence.  

 Here's Thor, complete with Chris Hemsworth's squinty little eyes

 And Captain 'Merica with Chris Evans' striking baby blues

 Iron Man doing his...thing

 And Hulk in pre-smash mode

 I'm especially fond of this little touch

Greg White Illustration