Summer Movies

Again, I was given the task of coming up with a cover for this week's TimeOut tabloid. Good fun! Last week, the topic was Super-Hero Summer Movies. This week, the focus changed to, um, Summer Movies! Maybe I should have just pulled Thor out of last week's cover and dropped Johnny Depp's Pirate-Guy in there.

Hindsight, eh? But this was fun, too. The rundown on the summer films is an annual shtick at the paper and I've drawn and designed for it many times. Do it a few years in a row and you begin to think you'll never come up with another idea again. After a three-or-so summers hiatus, I'm back on the job... and still stumped.

Yeah, I know, my solution here is sort of clip arty and generic, but I didn't want to do the usual "movie-still collage." ( No disrespect intended; I've made a few of those, and probably will again.) When I looked through the available images from the upcoming films, everything seemed so gloomy. All of the big-time movies are so dim and "dark and edgy" and oppressively digital-- they already look like big photoshop collages.

So, I attacked the design with relentless bright and copious sunny. I aimed for something outside of my usual range of style. I'm not comfortable or confident with this more "graphic" type of illustration, but it's fun to explore.

Toward the end I was really digging it. I thought I was doing hot stuff. But, after giving it a day to cool off, it's not that good. But I had a good time!

Next!

P.S. Since the Blogger hiccup delayed this post, I can now include the art as it appears in print: