Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ornamental Creature Head Designs










These drawings developed from an unusual and cool job request. I was asked to help sketch out some ideas for gargoyle/creature heads that would be used on a frame housing a portrait of The Addams Family, for a poster advertising the Addams Family Chicago and Broadway Musical, which opens next year.

The sketches were to resemble a creature, but be done in such a way that you'd have to look twice to fully see the face, in an ornamental style. From my pencil sketches, my collaborator and client on the project developed rendered ornamental motifs for the four 'clock positions' on the frame. My drawings tended to steer more to the tribal sort of angluar style, rather than a floral, flowery kind of approach, but they still worked out all right. When the final project is done, I'll post a link. The ad is scheduled to run in the New York Times in November, and then be a billboard in Times Square.


The 12:00 and 6:00 positions on the frame were to have frontal views and at 9:00 and 3:00, profiles. For the frontal ones, I drew a line on my paper and drew only on the left side. I scanned that in and in Photoshop, copied that and flipped it, creating the mirror image. I did a little over forty designs in total.

9 comments:

MAY-DAY said...

wow lots of work there, looks good! clean stuff, not sure how it fits in to the poster would love to see the finish. good job.

Johnny Supersonic said...

Yeah, they look good and you really cranked out a load of them. I like how they sit just on the line between being faces and being abstract.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thanks! I had fun with these; they came naturally and easily, so that was a plus, for sure.

Jason Quinones said...

dude that's some fantastic work!! can't wait to see the finished product to get a clearer picture of what's it gonna look like all together. but so far on it's own they all look great!!

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thanks, Jason. As soon as the finished piece is done, I'll post a link to it. I think the final art might not resemble these sketches too much, as they were used more for inspiration then anything.

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

Looks cool- great assignment to get.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thanks, Dan.

Christine said...

cool masks.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thanks, Christine.