LEGENDARY ART SERIES – ARTIST PROFILES

LAS: What attracted you to make a print for Kong?

FF: I can safely say I am a life time fan of King Kong. I have fond memories of watching the classic 1933 movie since I was a kid, and in my late teens I had chance, during a Carlo Rambaldi exhibit, to operate the famous Kong arm that grabbed Jessica Lange in the De Laurentiis movie. When I was offered the opportunity to draw the big ape on a poster for this new, badass edition, it really was a no brainer.

LAS: What makes Francesco such a perfect fit for Kong?

Mondo: Francesco is king when it comes to designing and injecting his art with a pulpy, adventurous aesthetic. His poster work feels authentic – yet totally classic – like a product of a bygone era. It didn’t take long to know he was the right artist for the job and his love and adoration of the giant ape clearly shines through in this poster.

Francesco is always our favorite artist for big monster movies. He is perfect at capturing the scary, larger-than-life feel that cinema monsters provide. Plus, he’s a giant Kong fan, and that passion shows in his poster.

LAS: What are the challenges with working with such an iconic character?

FF: We really wanted to play on the majesty, the gigantic size of Kong, so after a couple of layouts, I came up with him looming, reaching over the island – a little nod to the classic image of King King looming over NYC skyline. It helped that the movie has so much great visuals that I tried to implement in the layout.

Mondo: Agreed, for Kong specifically, presenting his size appears the eternal challenge.  It often feels like you can never make him big enough.  You could snap him standing next to a truckload of yardsticks and have an accurate measurement of the guy. After exiting the theater, however, your memory can’t help but balloon his stature. 

See more of Francesco’s work here:

website: http://www.francescofrancavilla.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/f_francavilla
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/f_francavilla/
Tumblr: http://francavillarts.tumblr.com

See more Mondo work here: 

website: https://mondotees.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mondonews
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mondotees/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mondotees

LAS: Can you tell us about your involvement in the Legendary Art Series?

KT: My involvement with the Legendary Art Series started out by making a poster for WARCRAFT, the upcoming film directed by Duncan Jones. It expanded to making two posters and the art being used as the cover of the official Warcraft comic book, which is really awesome.

LAS: What was your process like working on the piece?

KT: Thankfully, Legendary was very involved and wanted to make sure that I had as much to work with as possible. While I was in Los Angeles, they invited me to a screening of the movie so I got to see the whole thing and get ideas.

After that, I worked with closely with a Legendary Art Director to arrive at the idea of making two posters to represent the warring factions came about.

I drew a rough sketch to show what angles of what characters is need and they gave me all kinds of resources to work with. Also, I found photos from the Legendary booth at San Diego to be a surprisingly good asset.

LAS: Can you tell us your inspiration for the poster?

KT: From the moment the movie started, I knew I wanted to make a visually dense and textured poster that reflected the traits and characters of the warring sides. Making two separate posters that go together compositionally was a good way to give them equal treatment.

I felt that keeping the action and characters contained within their respective animals against a black background would draw more attention to the characters and give the it all a movement, in this case, heading right toward each other.

Lastly, I also wanted to make sure there was a sense that the viewer was glimpsing a small sliver of a much larger world on both sides.

LAS: Do you have anything you’d like to share with aspiring artists?

KT: All the standard mantras apply because they are time tested and have held true about meeting any challenge. Practice, practice, practice. Don’t be afraid to fail. Not succeeding isn’t the same as failure. Always try new things.

One thing I feel doesn’t get mentioned enough is to learn to put yourself out there. It doesn’t matter how good you get if no one knows about your work. That means submitting your portfolio to as many art directors as possible, posting new work regularly online, and attending/exhibiting at conventions that cater to the art loving crowd.

Good luck, it’s not easy, but totally possible for anyone who is determined and resourceful.

See more of Kevin’s work on his website: tragicsunshine.com
Instagram : @tragicsunshine
Twitter: @tragicsunshine

LAS: Can you tell us about your involvement in the Legendary Art Series?

H74: I was flattered when Legendary reached out to see if I was interested in helping. {Pacific Rim] is a fantastic film so I was excited just to be able to take a stab at it.  I developed two different pieces based on my style and the second piece worked perfectly as a print.  It was a fun process because I hate to say, but was a little nervous because of how much I admire what Legendary has done and to be part of the family of designers was humbling. I just appreciate being able to be involved on something that can become a larger platform.  There are so many third party sites that get licensed rights… but adds this new relationship between the fan of a film and a opportunity to be able to get something directly from that studio.  I think this is something truly amazing.  It also gives us illustrators and designers a chance to be involved on something we normally wouldn’t be involved in and to give a personal touch or vision to something we find admiration within.

LAS: What was your process like working on the piece?

H74: My process is pretty simple to be honest.  I started with a rough sketch of [a] Jaeger to see if it would work and if it had merit to the film.  From there I dropped it into illustrator and started mouse clicking sections.  A lot of designers these days enjoy using brushes and drawing, but I look at each line of a piece as a unique item.  From the control of how thick, loose or rough it needs to be helps define a edge.  Just using the pen tool and mouse, I clicked each line and characteristic into being.  I find more joy in that form or organic construction than just using a pre-existing brush.

LAS: Can you tell us your inspiration for the poster?

I don’t know if there was any certain inspiration for the poster except trying to find a balance of chaos within control. Sometimes the simplest things are the best, but I also didn’t want to disappoint either. 

So the core inspiration at this point was just trying to involve my sense of style and work into something that I’d never imagine being involved with.

LAS: Do you have anything you’d like to share with aspiring artists?

H74: The only [thing] I ever encourage is just do.  You never know who you will get to meet along the journey of your career and what you will accomplish or have the opportunity to accomplish.  I’m always flattered to be considered for different projects because I know I’m not the best at what I do, but finding yourself and the value reverberates and becomes a defining part in confidence of at least trying to push forward and do greater things.  

See more of Joshua’s work on his website: hydro74.com
Instagram : hydrosevenfour
Twitter: @hydro74

LAS: Can you tell us about your involvement in the Legendary Art Series?

KT: I was asked [by Legendary] to be part of the series… I love del Toro’s other films so I was pretty excited to watch [Pacific Rim] and get inspired. Essentially the brief was relatively open – pretty much create a sweet poster… I was extremely grateful to be part of this series. I think [Legendary has] gone above and beyond in trying to showcase the artists’ work and process and really pushed for something that was faithful to the film. Hopefully the products reflect that!

LAS: What was your process like working on the piece?

KT: Well first I obviously watched the film and did a bit of reading on it – researched the kaijus – and looked for imagery of Hong Kong after I had made the decision to focus on that part of the movie. Then I submitted a relatively polished rough which was approved. I then moved on to stage-by-stage development of the final, which I was keeping [Legendary] in the loop on. Little things changed or got emphasized along the way but the final result didn’t really differ all that much from the original rough. Everything I do here is created in illustrator from scratch. At the end I divvied it all up and create separations for screen printing.

LAS: Can you tell us your inspiration for the poster?

KT: As soon as I watched the film I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The scene where everyone runs out onto the street heading for the shelter as the kaiju stomps through the Bone Slum of Hong Kong… Selfishly I just picked something that I thought would be fun to draw.

See more of Ken’s work on his website: www.kentaylor.com.au
Instagram: @kentaylorart

LAS: Can you tell us about your involvement in the Legendary Art Series?

BK: I’m a big fan of Legendary films, and when I was asked if I would like to do something, well, obviously, I was interested in that. So, first of all I said yes. At that time, I did not know which film exactly it would be, so we were discussing the details and only later I found it was going to be Crimson Peak, which is the new film of Guillermo del Toro, which made me even more excited because I like his work a lot… I loved the imagery, the atmosphere, the sinister gloomy look of the film. At the same time, the [gothic] setting… That was the thing. It got me really excited.

LAS: What was your process like working on the piece?

BK: When you do [art] you have to be into details. So [the print] looks a bit like a woodcut or a woodprint. Yeah, that was the idea. I studied traditional graphics. What I really like is either the etching or the woodcut, so you have the fine line and you know some, like the chiaroscuro kind of effect so you have dark and light. And that was the idea; just make it look very traditional…When you look at the top part of the poster, where you have this kind of curvy elements… it’s actually taken from the gates to the mansion, and the stuff which is on the left hand side and right hand side are taken from the ornaments on the door, the front door of the house… All of the elements that are in the poster are actually based on the reference materials from the film.

LAS: Can you tell us your inspiration for the poster?

BK: Dark and sinister and gloomy and kind of beautiful in a way because when you look at [Guillermo del Toro’s] films, they are not like gory, creepy, horrors with lots of blood and guts and stuff. They are more than that. There is something supernatural going on, but it is beautiful in this dark way, so I tried to create something like that… In most of my work, I use pinkish colors and they are very feminine, so I’m glad that I got to do something dark and gloomy which was great… It is totally different.

See more of Bartosz’s work on his website: www.bartoszkosowski.com
Instagram: bartoszkosowski