A GLIMPSE AT MY PROCESS

STEP 1: GATHER REFERENCE & INSPIRATION

I take movie screenshots, collect promo photos, stills, and any other resources that could possibly inspire my poster or help fill in gaps in my references. I organize everything into folders by subject, and then create a board with all the images I am drawing from.

​

STEP 2: QUICK THUMBNAIL SKETCH (OPTIONAL)

I often roughly scribble out a basic composition that shows me the main thrusts of my idea and helps me capture my initial approach that I will try to build using the references I have found.

 

STEP 3: PHOTO COMP SKETCH

Working in Photoshop on a Wacom Cintiq, I begin to play around with all of the photographic references I have, cutting and pasting assets together to see what composition I can build from them. I draw into and paint over the photographic elements to get them to flow together harmoniously. I manipulate the size and placement of the elements until the idea starts to solidify. By the end, my final concept sketch is a photo paint over.

​

STEP 4: COLOR PALETTE SELECTION

I feel out the colors I want to use by playing with gradient maps and applying them to my photo paint over composite sketch. 

​

STEP 5: PAINTING

Once the composition is nailed down, I spend a long time meticulously repainting and redrawing all the aspects of my poster piece by piece until it is entirely illustrated in my own hand and style. Some aspects of the composition will continue to evolve until the painting is fully locked in and all areas are resolved to my liking. Some parts will be repainted several times over before I am satisfied.

​

STEP 6: FINAL POLISH

Details get tidied up to make sure the piece looks clean and polished at full scale. Any final color and value tweaks happen at the very end.

​

​TIME FRAME

This process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to a few months depending on the complexity of the poster.