Space Oddity

After making Jim Cookie, I was still in a Star Wars/THX1138-induced fever of wanting to do space-themed images. So while I was working on another image that may or may not pop up on here one day, I came up with something about the first chimp shot into space (in 1961) named Ham.
I found some fantastic photos of Ham with his trainers and closely modeled parts of my image after them. I still managed to mix in some small doses of Jim Cookie with the Luke Skywalker influenced orange jumpsuit.After a marathon inking watching A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back, I brought the piece into Photoshop, where I moved his eyes so they would look more directly at his captors.
To make arms holding him down more ambiguously alien, I colored them all blue, an obvious contrast to the bright orange jumpsuit.I had a lot of fun playing around with the color and getting in close with all of the little details on the patches, screws and wires.. I think it wound up a fantastic finished piece, especially considering how fast it came together.
Until next time.

--CKL--

Society of Illustrators

The opening reception for the Student Scholarship Competition at the Society of Illustrators was tonight. 195 pieces were on display through two galleries at the Society and represented 46 schools from across the country. There was a tremendous variety of work, all of which was extremely unique and very inspiring. My piece based on Family Band was selected. I had done this piece back in either December or January after receiving a free copy of Family Band's Blessed EP and really digging the mysterious/ominous folk they were creating.
The piece was essentially about the music being a sort of death throe that acts like a beacon, or a sort of particular tone that's only audible to more sinister creatures, i.e. vultures. Getting reference for the vultures was fun, but pretty disturbing. They're unusually ugly/scary birds. But it was still obviously fun to draw them. And I just really like drawing guitars.
The show will be on display at the Society through May 29th. I highly advise going to check it out (128 East 63rd Street) There is some really incredible work on display with some fantastic unique and individual voices. This is the future of illustration, folks. And it's looking good.
All photos by Bryan Dechart. Check out his photography here.