These drawings are for the Criterion Collection. I have a short list of ideal, fantasy clients and luckily, Criterion called me a little before Christmas to work on the packaging to John Huston's "Wise Blood". Based on the novel by Flannery O'Connor, the story takes place in the late 70's. Brad Dourif (more recently, and weirdly coincidentally, Doc Cochran from Deadwood) plays Hazel Motes, who starts up the Church Without Christ, by preaching to anyone who will listen, on top of his old jalopy.
I was given free reign as far as ideas go, and came up with the sketches above. The sketch that got chosen really felt like a pivitol moment in the film and nicely sums everything up. Eric Skillman, the talented designer and art director at Criterion pretty much told me to keep things loose and I took a more stripped down approach to the finish. I'm really happy with how things came together. I've really been trying to simplify things when given the chance. Of course I still get calls often for the more complex, detailed drawings that I'm starting to get noticed for...but it's really refreshing to keep the detail and colors to a minimum.
Artwork used the inside booklet, with the car wrapping around to the backside.
Recently, I just read a great essay in Wired magazine by Scott Dadich, the Creative Director, on the beauty of designing with limits. I really feel that I have this tendency to over clutter things or to just pile drawing on top of drawing, without any regard to knowing when to stop. Of course, I think this is something that comes with experience, but its really nice to create SIMPLE, clear images and compositions.
