Vamp Arrow Video DVD cover illustration

Here is the new illustration for the 80s classic Vamp!

When i was given the job the first thing they requested was that i incorporated a 'special' colour into the illustration. So colour became the big theme for this cover, it's also a representation of the films style too. when i watched it again i really picked up on the strong use of 'comic book' style lighting and neon colours used throughout.

It also really needed it to shout '80s' to people and i drew the title in a classic brush script (cornering the V and P into fangs, although this did get lost a bit lost behind the characters in the end), i then toyed with the idea of dropping in a green neon grid for the background but felt it didn't say anything about the film and instead i opted for some neon esque pyramid styling (a nod to the Vamps origins!) with stars and a full moon to set that 80's retro mood.

Finally i wanted to visually represent a more comical side of Vamp to let people know sort of film there getting themselves into. I felt going down a dark gory horror route wouldn't be appropriate for this title and would just alienate a load of potential viewers (its a extremely tame horror film by todays standards) so i was trying to sell it more on its strength of 80s teen horror nostalgia, appealing to any retro hipsters out there! or people just looking for a good ol' classic light harted horror romp! ... just like you remember them (before torture porn destroyed all that!).

For the layout i used Grace Jones for the main character to represent the horror aspect by having her literally lunging out of the cover to grab you! then i framed her with the other characters to show the more non serious elements with funny/repulsed expressions.

Twitch Film article on Arrow Video illustrations

I just wanted to post this awesome article on the Twitch Film site by J Hurtado.

It say's some really cool things things about the cover artwork and mentions the dude!

So i was quite chuffed (to say the least) when i saw it, its my first review on the work ive been doing here. Some of the game covers i work on have been on forums but this type of work is more personal and done out of passion rather than financial gain. On the whole the receptions been good and as this stuff grows its excellent to see some people are enjoying it and feel the same love of trash, grindhouse, pulp pop video art, that i do... Im not alone on this one!

Well anyway heres J Hurtado. article (and the guys at arrow assure me they didnt pay him!)

Video Home Invasion: Arrow Video Artwork and Cult Labs

hopefully some of my trash art will continue to works its voodoo!

.... and thanks to everyone!

Deadly Outlaw Rekka Takashi Miike DVD cover illustration

Hi, Ive been sitting on this one for about a month now waiting to post it, its the new illustration for Arrow Videos Deadly Outlaw Rekka directed by Takashi Miike.

DOR is more adult (and violent) film than Jaguar Lives, so it needed a darker vibe plus its also a more modern title (2002) so i couldn't have the same cheesy layout as JL obviously. But i still wanted to keep that classic looking VHS artwork style.So the first thing i did was to create the film title. I new i wanted the cover dark this time but with a vibrant title, so i immediately thought back to films like The Warriors, Repro man, Maniac with there splattered spray paint esque logos, which look great against a plain black background. Plus this film is all about bloody revenge so it was a bit of a no brainier what needed doing.

For the illustration itself i have always loved those dark to white style paintings so this would be a great opportunity to play about with that, having all the characters coming out and merging with the darkness would really set the right tone. As the painting was quite dark though i needed to give it that extra kick (so i wouldn't get lost on the shelf), so offset the black with big bold bloody red strokes and splatter it allowed me highlight the characters and incorporate the logo style into the illustration more.

There were not many assets to work with for this one. Particularly of the main character Riki Takeuchi, (he is one crazy mother! Just google him) but he has an awesome expressive face so i based him on a mixture of elements and the same goes for Yûya Uchida (the old dude) he has an amazing white main of hair, i had to drop him in on the cover (even though he doesn't last long on the film, he's quite central to the story and very iconic) his hair actually proved to be one of the most awkward bits to do. The only real image i had from the film was of the severed hand strangle (a brilliant scene!) but it was very dark (literally) with not much detail, so quite a bit of work went on for that one too.

All in all I'm really happy with how its come out, love the bright red contrasting with the black (i did use a similar effect on the Cronos which i did after rekka... but i just couldn't help myself!!). Well Hope everyone else likes it too.

These cards mean buisness...

I've been meaning to get around to it for a while so finally here is my design/illustration for the Dude designs business card. You can get wrapped up doing graphic design trying to say (and sell) everything about yourself (i used to work for a small design firm in Shoreditch that never actually got around to designing there own website as they just couldn't decide on what the perfect design was). So an ethos im slowly building with allot of the dude designs work... is 'f*ck it man!' im just going to do what feels right and fun! don't take yourself to seriously and some great things do come out!! (if you limit yourself being to uptight nothings going to happen).

Anyway i wanted something that would say a bit about the site and my style of work so this is it, you may recognise the photo i based the illustration on below with the cannon stuff, i was going for the gentle man designer vibe!

This is just the front obviously. I've done a similar style for the back but just with my contact details on but thought i'd just stick the illustrtation money shot on here.

Midnight Movies, Cronos Intorduced by Guillermo del Toro

Here's another poster design I've just created for a Midnight Night Movies Guillermo del Toro special, there screening Cronos and Guillermo is going be there in person to present it! (maybe even sign a few posters... if all goes well!!).

So I've done an illustration of him presenting the Cronos Scarab... enticing you in!!
I then need something else to tie the poster together. So i worked up a sinister old clock work cog logo, which relates back to the workings of the Cronos device from the film (I was going to re draw the logo by hand but after getting quarter of the way through it just wasn't working and didn't really add anything to the design). Well I haven't done a illustration for the Curzon flyers yet and i thought this would be a good opportunity to do it in honour of del Toro, so i hope he likes it !!!