Last week I started messing around with digital sketches of some characters from the best television show around, BREAKING BAD. I had just watched all of season 4 and caught up on season 5 so my blood was thick with the meth-slinging action. My, that was a poor choice of words.
When I start prepping for a poster design I normally do sketches in Photoshop such as these. Essentially, this is the first step in my process before moving into vector to nail down the real deal. I do these fairly quickly, maybe an hour on each one, just to study my highlights and shadows. I experiment with the shapes of colour to see what works the best dramatically while maintaining likeness. I use photos found online as the base because I suck at capturing likeness freehand. I then “re-paint” the entire thing.
I posted these on Twitter and Instagram last week and response was far more than I expected. Even had some offers to buy poster-sized versions, which was funny as these are merely roughs at this point.
I’m not entirely sure where these are leading quite yet, but watch this space as I build on the concept behind the scenes. Might be a poster, might be … several. I’ll try to update as things move along.
PS. Please do NOT post any BREAKING BAD spoilers in the comments, gang. Lets not ruin any big moments for anyone.
As always so good. And thanks for a window into how you do stuff. It’s always encouraging to see a glimpse of how other designers rock stuff for sure
Great show and great illustrations, but have you seen Sons of Anarchy? Flawless.
To the dink trying to pose as “me” on my own site: I moderate all comments before they’re live, you idiot. Keep trying, I’ll just keep deleting.
Where’s Gustavo? (and the shape of Walter’s glasses are a little off). Be mindful that Gus’ glasses are not rimless. They have a gold rim that lies on the inside edge of the top of the frames only. Plus, they have about a 5–7% yellow/brown tint. You can see it in a few shots when he is side on. Have you thought of any foreground/background work? Smoke, crystals, squares from the periodic table of the elements, &c? Names as a typographic element? I’d recommend Heisenberg be blue (like the colour of the…).
a few months have passed from my last visit to the blog ( cranking the studio, a new conference, things like these… you know, we are busy people :D ) and i can tell you: you’re doing better than ever! Good job James, keep rocking!!
Cheers from Venice, italy
Nick