The Crow

The Crow

Since we've got the 30th anniversary of the 90ies cult classic "The Crow" I decided to honor that seminal movie and the late Brandon Lee. Always loved the direction by Alex Proyas and admired the brilliant and tragic comic by James O’Barr. (If you've got the time, read up on the tragic real life events that led O'Barr to invent The Crow. Life truly is stranger and sadder than fiction.)

I wanted to focus on what defines that movie: badass nineties goth looks and a violent streak paired with religious undertones of rebirth and redemption. As the movie is famously stating: It can’t rain all the time…

I'll be using an iPad with Procreate to do all the actual drawing/line art, Photoshop for quick layouts and oldschool pen & paper for initial sketches.

It is always good to see what has been done before so we don't accidentally copy a prior design or get too close to some established idea. Google will help out with a visual tapestry of work that has been done by other artists, officially released and fan art.

During this step I'll also collect as many refences for likenesses of actors/locations and props I might want to draw from.

At this point I've got some ideas in my head and can go on to sketching out very quick and lose design ideas, putting more emphasis on the overall placement of elements than actually doing "a good drawing".

I find it beneficial to also do quick photo bashing layouts in Photoshop to come up with viable poster ideas and quickly see what might work.
In this case I decided against doing a full figure approach (while giving me cool looking designs) because it seemed too far away and Brandon Lee conveyed so much with just his face.
So I went with the initial sketched idea: putting him front and center, the angel of vengeance, framed by the very recognizable circular window set piece, almost church-like. The masks and the spiritual animal/crow complete the elements seen in the movie that I'd like to feature.

I enjoy doing design focused and thematically reduced art pieces. That is why I'll usually shy away from the movie poster trope of the "floating heads" and crammed in characters.

Since the design and placement of elements is pretty much done at this point, I can relax and focus on drawing. I tend to put on some music or the movie in question because the actual drawing with the intended level of detail will take a couple of work days. (But honestly, a marathon of old Columbo episodes will do as well. ;)

I usually start with the line art in stark black and work my way through the whole image. It's important to keep layers organized by individual color, going from dark to light, all neatly placed under that original black line art.
These drawing steps constitute the majority of work hours on any given piece for me.

I'm a big proponent of trying out versions of the design without doing excessive amounts of new elements. Color variants and rearranging of elements can provide totally new designs.
In this case, through experimentation, I stumbled upon a neat black and white version that fits the original comic version by James O'Barr. That gave me the idea to integrate the flames and give more contrast to the whole piece.

This could even constitute a separate color variant for collectors/special editions/variant releases. Suggesting new product ideas and design options to clients is usually a great step to gaining their confidence and appreciation.

IMDB can provide a good first idea of who worked on the movie but might prioritize different personal than the posters. It is always advisable to find higher resolution version of different official posters from the original screening period and see who they featured in the credit block.

A quick google search will reveal the chosen typography but I tend to change that. (I am not fond of serifs. I know, it's a personal taste thing.)
After doing the actual work, go ahead and check the spelling of all names and roles. Then check again. Seriously, I promise you'll end up finding little typography errors and misspelled names even on the third or fourth check.

The final design captures some of the iconic design ideas and elements of the movie, while being "in your face" with the bold character art. Badass nineties goth looks paired with religious undertones of rebirth and redemption.
Lastly I always like to do some mockups to demonstrate the versatility as well as giving any illustration some much needed real life context.

Thanks for taking the time and checking out my approach to design and illustration work, it is much appreciated!