As reported on Wired.
BY HUGH HART
The Dark Knight Rises by Jock
E.T. poster by Daa McCarthy
Tron poster by Eric Tan
Tron: Legacy poster by Eric Tan
The Iron Giant poster by Evan Tong
Evil Dead poster by Olly Moss
Star Trek by Olly Moss
Lord of the Rings poster by Mike Sutfin
Lord of the Rings poster by Paolo Rivera
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan by We Buy Your Kids
The Empire Strikes Back by Tyler Stout
Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Todd Slater
Captain America by Olly Moss
Game of Thrones by Vania Zouravilo
Captain America variation by Olly Moss
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by Aaron Horkey
Kill Bill by Tyler Stout
Monokoke by Olly Moss
Jurassic Park by Ken Taylor
They Live by Shepard Fairey
Captain America by Eric Tan
Captain America variation by Eric Tan
Dracula by Aaron Horkey and Vani Zouravliov
Frankenstein by Drew Struzan
Hellboy 2 by Ken Taylor
Inglourious Basterds by Tyler Stout
King Kong by Wes Winship
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Martin Anson
There Will Be Blood by Olly Moss
True Grit by Aaron Horkey
Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Tom Whalen
How do they do it? The tribute poster wizards at the Mondo Gallery seem to have a special gift for condensing the strangeness, beauty and excitement of iconic movies into graphics that capture their essence — and become works of art in their own right (see above).
Poster geeks looking for answers can glimpse a behind-the-scenes peek at the creative process at Mondo in the new aptly titled exhibition In Progress, which opened last weekend and tuns through February 23 at the Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas. The show features mind-melting sketches, concepts and line art prepped by design auteurs including Martin Ansin, Ken Taylor, Kevin Tong, Jay Shaw and Tom Whalen en route to final products celebrating Creature From the Black Lagoon, Planet of the Apes, Pan’s Labyrinth, Iron Giant and other cult classics.
The Mondo brand encompasses a gamut of styles ranging from Olly Moss’ stark minimalism to Tyler Stout’s busting-out-all-over face-and-figure explosions. Still, the gallery boasts a unifying aesthetic. Texas rock poster artist Rob Jones, who serves as Mondo co-creative director with Justin Ishmael and Mitch Putnam, told Wired, “I guess the ‘filter’ that ties everything together would be the three of us that comprise the creative side of Mondo. We have similar and at the same time wildly divergent tastes. Getting artists and posters that the triumverate can all get behind despite our differences and proudly present under the Mondo banner unites the artwork in a way.”
Mondo’s high energy aesthetic can be traced to its roots in Austin’s “gig poster” scene. The DIY movement peaked in the 1990s when rock bands collaborated with artisans to produce surreal surreal graphics that hyped club dates and doubled as fan merch.
Eight years ago, Jones coaxed his pals to shift focus from music to cult movies for a road show organized by Mondo parent company Alamo Drafthouse. Offerings included Repo Man, Escape From Alcatraz and Planet of the Apes. Ishmael recalls, “They sold them at screenings, hit the Internet, and it just grew from that road show tour idea in 2005 to what it is now.”
Mondo gained serious geek cred by securing rights in 2010 from the famously picky LucasFilms to produce tribute posters re-interpreting the Star Wars saga. To cement its reputation as a high-end re-interpreter of movie iconography, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences last year added Mondo’s ongoing poster series to its permanent Beverly Hills archive of memorabilia.
A triumph of nerdy attention to detail, Mondo’s stable of visual talents fuse fanboy enthusiasm with sophisticated illustration skills to embed iconic collective memories with uncommon graphic punch. Summing up Mondo’s curatorial process, Jones, says “For movie posters we want imagery that would serve as authentic promotional material, something that piques the interest without necessarily giving away the whole film.”
For an exclusive first look at In Progress sketches and artist commentary, check out the gallery below:
MY NEIGHBOR JAKE
The Artist: JJ Harrison
The Inspiration: Harrison says, “I was kicking out some drawings with the kids one day and Miyazaki’sSoot Sprites and Adventure Time characters are regular subjects in my mindless sketching, so BAM, it hits me. I gotta do Finn and Jake at the bus stop.”
The Process: “I always start my drawings in red,” says Harrison. “After I had the drawings, I snapped a couple straight-on photos of them with my phone and dropboxed them to my computer. Who needs scanners! From there I brought them into Photoshop and proceeded to draw and color right on top of the sketches. Several hours and 50-some-odd color layers later and it was finished.”
GO APE
The Artist: Jason Edmiston
The Inspiration: “My Go Ape poster is a direct homage to the original poster from 1974 distributed by 20th Century fox that advertised a movie marathon showing all five Planet of the Apes movies,” says Emiston.
The Process:: Emiston explains, “My goal was to recreate the vibe and composition of the classic, while switching up a photo of a soldier ape for a tight illustration of General Ursus. I gathered reference of Ursus from internet searches, screen grabs and toy photos, then drew a sketch in pencil at about a quarter of the size of the final painting. I scanned the composition and enlarged it in Photoshop, printed it out, and traced it on primed, stretched watercolor paper. “Then I painted it traditionally in acrylic, like all my other paintings,” He continues. “I painted a full value sepia underpainting and followed with color washes, building up from medium values to darks, then finishing with lights and highlights. The text was done in Photoshop by Mondo’s Rob Jones.”
GO APE, the Sketch
THE INVISIBLE MAN, the Variant
THE INVISIBLE MAN
The Artist: Kevin Tong
The Inspiration: “When I first started working on The Invisible Man, I knew I would have to find a way to show his body, communicate the he was invisible, and also, that he was going insane,” says Tong. “The bandage unraveling seemed like a good metaphor for his sanity unraveling and showing him fully dressed without a head made it very surreal.”
The Process: Tong says, “My first step is to do a loose sketch in blue pencil. This sketch has more value than my usual posters, so I did a greyscale value study before taking it to final, resulting in the three pieces I have in the show for that poster. Since the film was in black and white, it seemed strange to make the poster full color. I didn’t use color in the poster which sets this one apart from most of my other work, which usually uses super bright colors in some capacity.”
THE INVISIBLE MAN, the Sketch
IRON GIANT
The Artist: Kevin Tong
The Inspiration: “Iron Giant is so moving and funny at the same time,” says Tong. “The friendship between Hogarth and the Iron Giant is epic and reminds me in many ways of one of my favourite movies,E.T.”
The Process: Tong notes, “I am especially sensitive to how Brad Bird has used CGI in such a subtle way. The mix between the conventional “hand drawn” animation and the CGI is very coherent and smooth. That’s what I always try to achieve my posters: the right mix between technology and art.”
Tong continues, “I dig the colour scheme of the film, the Indian summer feel, the vibrancy of autumn leaves,” Tong continues. “That’s what I’ve tried to depict in my poster. I love how the colours interact with each other and the overall naturalistic feel with the flock of birds flying by, the sea on the horizon, the sun setting, the light house. I’m also very pleased with the typography as well. My brother Jack nailed it!”
IRON GIANT, the Sketch
BULLHEAD
The Artist: Jay Shaw
The Inspiration: “The idea going into Bullhead was to blur the line between man and beast visually, similar to what the film does on an emotional level,” says Shaw.
The Process: Shaw says, “Utilizing a primitive 3-D model of the body as a base, I employed a fine stipple brush in Photoshop for detailed shading. The bull legs were especially challenging, as I wanted to render them with human skin. Once I realized they looked much more natural with a coat of hair, everything fell into place. The title treatment is meant to resemble packaged meat.”
BULLHEAD, the Sketch
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
The Artist: Laurent Durieux
The Inspiration: “I had never seen any of the Universal Monsters movies before,” notes Durieux. “In Belgium, they are not so much engrained in our movie culture as they are in the U.S. I found them truly moving and beautiful.”
The Process: After sketching out ideas and adding color to more refined drawings, Durieux says, “I prepare the layout with a collage of all sorts of documentation, screen grabs and drawings. Zita Johann’s arm comes from a vintage window display mannequin.”
Next comes “Inking of the final collage mainly on computer with a Wacom palette and also the old fashion way–on paper,” he explains. “I scan all the bits and pieces I have and paste them into a coherent whole.”
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, the Sketch
MY NEIGHBOR JAKE, the Sketch
SHAUN OF THE DEAD by Jock
