CASE STUDY: The Last Nerve: A High Tea Poetry Brawl
I took on a project recently through my good friend Katelan, talented writer and art director who I will work on any project with forever. She’s got a great sense of design, knows me and my work really well, and can cultivate the best out of me. And speaking as an illustrator, that’s really what you want in an art director.

OBJECTIVE
Provide illustration of a punk-Victorian lady to accompany press materials for a poetry tour. Materials include press releases, brochures, etc.

CASTING THE RIGHT GIRL
In a similar fashion with Accomplice Wine, I had to find the perfect girl for this campaign. I was a lot more free with finding a look, and experimented with so many different girls.  Haircuts, clothing, bone structure, etc. I looked for classy, punk, Victorian, Circus-tones, modern yet vintage. These were adjectives that seemed to conflict with each other and needed to be married.

I was stuck on certain girls and certain haircuts, as you can see in the sketches. I don’t consider myself a fashion illustrator, but I love drawing clothes a lot, especially on girls. So it was tough for me to settle on one look when there were so many possibilities (I guess that’s why girls take so long to get dressed before a date!). I pulled looks from people I know personally, friends from college, girls I was too intimidated by to talk to. When you go to a school with very fashionable women, there’s a ton of possible looks to choose from.

I did one test I was very unpleased with. So I went back, reworked, found some clothes and accessory combinations that I made the outfit a little bit more interesting. I found a combo that provided lots of opportunity for spot blacks and wound up with everything I wanted. When I went to ink it, I tweaked some make-up, her expression, and brought more bosom into the picture.

KATELAN’S GENIUS
So with my part in the can, all I did was wait for her to do her thing. It makes me love collaborating when you get such good results in the end. Here’s how it came out, in action.

They look stunning, made me reevaluate my own illustration and how it works with the rest of the elements. The resulting image is stunning and I love how she integrated it with the rest of the design (making the inks blue! Genius!). You can download pdfs of the press releases here, or just look at them HUGE. If you like her work, make sure you comment, or better yet, send her a tweet.

Very inspired by graphic tome, Bone. Hope you enjoy it!

1. Just another dude!

2. I love love love designing characters, and just the shapes you can make with bodies. This guy reminds me of that actor Chazz Palminteri who does a ton of cop/mafia parts. I see him all the time, recently in The Usual Suspects, and I had to look up his name just now. E’s just friggin Italian!

3.Taylor Swift was recently on SNL and did a PSA on teens against bad parent driving. She wore headgear and she still looked cute. I wondered if a crazy hot emo girl would look any less gorgeous if she had some non-piercing metal in her face. Hot? or not? Happy Holla-days everyone!