Fragments of Forgotten Films

Fragments of Forgotten Films The Development process of my poster designs for cancelled films

Whilst we were partway through the first term of Foundation Art and Design, we were all eventually asked to choose a pathway to specialise our work towards. For me it was a no-brainer that I would choose to specialise into illustration, as a lot of my artwork leaned towards that specific field. However, though I did choose Illustration I particularly wanted to go into the field as either a Concept artist or Comic Book Creator.

One of my Favourite projects I completed whilst being on the Foundation Art and Design Course, was the Keswick Film Festival Project, where students who had chosen the illustration Pathway were tasked at creating Alternative Poster Designs for the Films that were being showcased at the 2020 Keswick Film festival. For this Project I ended up choosing to design posters for the films "Only Lovers Left Alive" and "Tumbbad" which were being showcased at the Film Festival. Whilst the rest of my class did end up going to the Film Festival to showcase their Artwork at the Exhibition, I sadly was unable to go due to Ill Health at the time.

Before deciding on what Idea I was going to expand upon for my Final Major Project my tutor ask me to think up at least 20 ideas that could possibly be used for my Final Major Project, with 3 of these ideas being chosen as possible final Ideas. Whilst all my ideas were somewhat influenced by my chosen pathway of Illustration (with some of the ideas being either conceptual art based or leaning towards character design). Eventually it was decided that my Final Major Project would focus on Designing posters for Cancelled Movies, in which I would research any info about the films including conceptual art as reference for when I would design the posters.

It was eventually decided that I would base my final project on making posters for various cancelled films from different directors and studios, since I really enjoyed the previous project of creating the film posters for the Keswick Film festival, and thought that this idea would be a great way of expanding and developing that project further. Overall this project was not only initially inspired by my project for the Keswick Film Festival, but also one of my favourite interests which is obscure film trivia, in particular information about cancelled films, spin-offs and sequels to other movies. With this project I would first choose some cancelled films that I would plan to design the posters for, research various available sources of information about these cancelled films (such as available scripts, who was meant to be cast in the film, concept art etc.), and then use the research about the cancelled films as reference for when I was to start designing the posters. When I was to begin designing the posters I would first create four thumbnails for the poster's design and do a survey and ask a few people what their favourite design was out of the four initial thumbnails. After the survey had concluded, I would choose the design with the most votes to base my poster design on. I plan to possible design at least 6 or 8 posters for my final project.

These were some studies I did in-between researching for my project, whilst the rest of my class went away on a school trip to Barcelona. The first two studies of the building were done in-between my afterschool maths class where I did an observational study of a couple of silhouettes of some houses and tree branches outside, whilst also making some notes beside the original sketches of what colours were visible for reference as I was planning on redoing the sketch but at a larger scale and in colour (which is the sketch that I did in the middle). the middle sketches were continuations of the first sketches but done in colour using watercolours, I feel that doing these studies in colour helped me get a grasp on how to paint gradients for sunsets and night skies which I feel could help me in designing some of my posters such as my design for the "Night Skies" poster. The final sketch on the right was done as part of one of the tasks I was set before the my class went on their trip to Barcelona, which was to go to a museum and do a few studies of some of the exhibits they had on Display. I decided to go to Tullie House to do an observational study of both a whale skull and half of a whale skeleton they had on display there called "Driggsby" as I thought it would be an interesting and complex subject to study. I did the initial study using a Tombow Calligraphy Pen with Black Ink, and I found that drawing the whale skeleton helped me figure out how to apply certain techniques such as Cross hatching to my work to quickly add shading and how to use varying sizes of linework to create the illusion of certain parts of the skeleton being closer than other parts towards the viewer.

After I had finished brainstorming the ideas for the poster design of the film "Shadow Company" and had also finished researching information about this cancelled film, I started drafting up some initial designs for Shadow Company's poster. After I had completed my sketches of the 2nd series of conceptual designs for my movie poster designs as part of my final project using a mechanical Pencil on the 30th March 2020, I then scanned the page containing the sketches onto my computer and then enhanced the contrast of the images using my computer's edit feature to further enhance the details of the sketch's. I then sent a few copies of the edited version of the posters to some of my friends, family and acquaintance's, asking them what their favourite designs were, I did this in order to find out which design was the most popular, and therefore what design I would go with for my final design.

I added the title design for the poster and finally finished the Poster design for “Shadow Company” on the 5th May 2020. Overall I really liked how the poster design turned out as it managed to capture the same amount of detail visible on my larger A3 Mount board posters but on a much more smaller A4 scale and with less time spend on the posters. Due to this I plan on creating the rest of my posters also at an A4 scale as it will allow me to complete the posters more quickly and effectively. the poster's initial sketch was done with a mechanical pencil in my sketchbook and then painted on top of the initial sketch with Windsor and Newton Gouache Paints.

I first began sketching out the 4 thumbnails for the poster design for "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash" on the 11th May 2020, and then sent members of my family copies of the designs and asked them what their favourite design was. Whilst designing these Thumbnails I was heavily inspired by the stylised design of the cover artwork for the comic book series of "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash" which was inspired by this cancelled movie's script, and its sequel "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash: The Nightmare Warriors". Eventually when the votes came in from my family members about what was their favourite design, it was decided that my final poster design would be based on the 4th Thumbnail for "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash".

For the final touch, I added a few highlights around the title text to help make it stand out against the background. I finally completed the poster for "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash" on the 2nd June 2020, with the poster itself being the last poster for my Final Major Project. Overall I found designing this poster both enjoyable and quite a bit of a challenge, mainly because I hadn't created any artwork digitally prior to doing this course. Whilst I at first found it difficult using some of the brushes on photoshop, after practicing and experimenting with various different types of brushes and blending tools until I eventually got comfortable using them and began applying them to the poster. The poster itself was made with a combination of Kyle's Screen tone brushes, Kyle's Spatter Brushes, Kyle's Inkbox Brushes and Soft Round Pressure Brushes.

Once I had planned out my ideas for the poster design I was going to create for my poster of the cancelled film "Night Skies", based on both the details of the script and the photographs of the Alien models that were to be featured in the film had it not been cancelled. I started sketching out my designs in mechanical pencil on the 25th March 2020 and then asked both members of my family and some people that I know what their favourite design out of the four posters I designed. After it had been decided that I would go with the first design based on the tally, I started planning out what medium I would try and design this poster with. Ultimately I decided that I would try designing this poster with Acrylics and an Airbrush, as I wanted this poster to give off a similar feel to a painting done by Drew Struzan.

I finally finished the final design for “Night Skies” on the 2nd May 2020, with it being the first proper poster that I had designed with an airbrush on a canvas of A3 size. Overall I enjoyed the process as it allowed me to create a detailed background for my poster quickly and therefore meant less time was wasted designing the poster, though I still feel that I need to practice a bit more using an airbrush in order to get more use to using it. Overall, I liked how the final poster turned out, with its effective use of simplistic silhouettes effectively contrasting with the detailed and vibrant gradient of the airbrushed night sky. The poster was designed on an A3 sized piece of Mountboard, Acrylic paints by Pebeo and FW Acrylic Inks which were airbrushed onto the Canvas.

Once I had planned out what I would include in my four designs for the Gambit poster, I began sketching out each of the designs with a mechanical pencil with each of the designs incorporating cards into the overall design. Once I had finished sketching out my four designs on the 30th March 2020, I sent off my designs to both members of my family and my acquaintances to rate their favourite two designs. The final design that was chosen was the second design. I planned to design the poster on a large piece of A3 Mountboard using pencil to create the initial sketch and then finally painting on top of the sketch using Gouache.

I finally completed the poster for the movie “Gambit” on the 25th April 2020. While I was impressed with how most of the poster turned out. However, if I had a bit more time I would have added some more splatter effects with the toothbrush technique using various different vibrantly coloured Gouache around the poster to create the illusion of fireworks, I also might have added a fleur de-lis pattern on the black border near the edges of the poster. Due to the amount of time it took to finish this poster on the A3 Mount board I plan on creating the rest of the posters at a smaller A4 size, so I do not waste too much time on one poster. This was the first poster that I created for this project, with this poster being created on an A3 sheet of Mountboard that was sketched on with pencil and then painted on top using Gouache.

I started sketching out the poster designs for Treasure Planet 2 on the 27th April 2020 using a mechanical pencil for the initial sketches and black pen/ black ballpoint pen for the text about the thumbnails at the top of the page. Since these posters were to initially incorporate highly detailed galaxy effects such as star-clusters, stars and nebula's into their designs so I had to simplify parts of the thumbnails designs. hence why the thumbnails feature jagged lines to convey where the nebula patterns would spread out and also where some explosions might feature in the posters designs. After I had finished sketching out the 4 thumbnail designs I sent copies of the designs to members of my family and a few acquaintance's and asked them what their favourite design was. Eventually after the votes were in, it was decided that my final poster design would be the first poster. However, I thought this poster was a bit bland and so decided that I would alter a few aspects of this design when creating my final poster, to help make it stand out.

I finally completed the poster design for Treasure Planet 2 on the 28th May 2020, the poster itself being a mixed medium piece made with both Watercolour Paints to create the galaxy-esque effects on the posters and for the bright colours and Gouache with the solid matte black background and white speckles used to create the stars in the background. Whilst I did like how the poster itself mostly turned out, if I was to redo the poster I would have made the colours of the watercolours slightly less saturated as I feel the brightness of the poster is slightly overpowering and makes the skin tones of characters such as Kate and Captain Amelia stand out less. Another detail I would have altered if I were to redo the poster again, would be that I would had slightly less stars or I would have had less shooting stars in the poster as I felt that they are slightly distracting in the poster.

I first initially sketched out the poster design for "The Legend of Spyro 3D" in Graphite pencil on the 22nd April 2020. Overall I wanted the overall designs of these posters to effectively capture the look and style of the Videogame series, so I looked at the various character designs and concept art from the games (in Particular the first and second games in the trilogy) for reference whilst I was sketching out the initial four poster designs. I overall really liked the loose sketchy feel of all the thumbnails designs. After I finished sketching out the posters I sent off the designs to both members of my family and my acquaintances for their opinion of their favourite design. Eventually it was decided that the chosen poster design for the poster would be the 2nd poster.

I finally Completed the poster design for "The Legend of Spyro 3D" on the 18th May 2020. Overall I was really impressed at how it turned out as it almost was exactly how I wanted the poster to look like. The main parts of this poster that I liked were how certain ink patterns looked on the page after they reacted to water, creating a sort of bubble-like effect with the varying hues/ shades of the colours. I also like how the border turned out as it gives the overall piece a sort of ancient fairytale or Fantasy-esque feel similar to some of the illustrations of J.R Tolkien, Mike Mignola or even the book covers for Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series. I also like how the border's colours help to create contrast with the poster itself which mainly uses varying hues/ tones of purple for the overall poster design. If I was to redo the poster again I possibly would have had the glowing outline around the celestial moons more blended out with the background of the sky, in order to more effectively create the illusion that they were glowing, similar to our moon.

In Conclusion, I found my Final Major Project both enjoyable and somewhat of a challenge, as it made me have to think outside the box when initially planning out how I was going to approach each of the designs, what mediums I was going to have to use when designing these posters (and also made me take into consideration how much of said mediums I had available in order to complete the posters, as during the time when I designed the posters most art shops were closed due to the ongoing Pandemic at the time) and how long it would take to design each of the posters, as this project was set to a timetable and deadline. For me, the most challenging poster’s to design were the poster for “Gambit”, “Night Skies” and “Freddy VS Jason VS Ash”. The poster for Gambit was somewhat difficult for me to design because the poster itself was designed at an A3 scale meaning it took quite a bit longer for me to paint in all the details on the initial poster than it would if I designed the poster at an A4 size ( which is something I took into consideration when designing my later posters as most of the later posters were designed at an A4 size due to this). While the posters for both “Night Skies” and “Freddy VS Jason VS Ash” were difficult for me to design for a different reason, as prior to this course I didn’t have any experience working digitally and also working with an airbrush to create the posters, so I had to practice quite a bit in order to get used to using these tools in order to create the posters using both these newly learned techniques. If I were to redo this project again in the near future I would try to have more realistic goals in mind when designing the posters (trying to design at least 5 or 6 posters like I ended up doing for this project instead of 8 or 9 like I was going to do for this project, as that was unrealistic considering the amount of time I was given for this project) , I would try to have more experience and get used to using the materials before I started the project so that I didn’t waste time whilst working on this project, try to spend a bit less time researching the films so that I had more time to work on the posters, and finally if I was to design all the posters at an A3 scale I would have given myself a lot more time to work on the posters and I would have made sure I had enough materials/mediums to allow me to completely finish all the posters.

Appreciate