You could have it all (logan)

Medium: Digital illustration

 

logan poster print - corrected.png

process

The concept for this poster was driven from the beginning by Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt", which was used in the first trailer for the film. What kind of image of the Wolverine did I have come up in my head when I listened to that song? That's what I wanted to get down. 

So I started off with the preliminary sketches for Logan's portrait. I used any pictures of Hugh Jackman from Logan that I could find to get familiar with his overall look, and about three different reference shots were used of him from other films to get the facial structure down accurately. The shot of him from the film Prisoners was the main reference I used, since the trimmed facial hair gave me a good start at how to approach Logan's beard. 

45-prisoners-al.jpg

After getting a close representation of how the portrait would be laid out, I began sketching and shading the head. 

Preliminary mapping sketch

Preliminary mapping sketch

Draft One (Initial sketching and detailing)

Draft One (Initial sketching and detailing)

Once a workable rough draft was done, I went back and started the detailing - a process that took considerably longer when it came to the hair and beard. Thousands of strands of hair and about twelve hours of work later, the head was done and I began work on his neck, shoulders, and overall posture. Once I got it down, I put together a second draft so I could start experimenting with color.

Posture test

Posture test

Color test (1)

Color test (1)

Color test (2)

Color test (2)

Typography test

Typography test

After testing out different coloring concepts, I couldn't find one I wanted to stick to. I put it off and started working on the text instead, telling myself I'll come back to it later. After trying out a good number of fonts, I decided to go with a Sans-Serif typeface - and by then, I'd finally figured out what I wanted to do for the coloring. 

There's a shot in the music video for Johnny Cash's "Hurt", where he's sitting down in front of his piano and closing it after he's finished singing his last verse. That image has stood out to me since I first saw the video in high school, and it's what influenced the posture I designed for Logan to have in the final draft. The golden sunset-like color in the background was something else I decided to implement, and it was probably the last major decision I made for the concept of this poster.