Here’s a poster design of everyone’s favorite scientist, Dr. Emmett L. Brown. In between doing full movie posters I like to do practise pieces to improve on some skills and techniques I’m exploring. This one started that way, as did THE SMUGGLER.
I’d like to think this was the expression Doc had on his face right before that lightning struck the DeLorean at the end of Part II. Stone cold determination, bravery and curiosity toward the unknown. But lets face it, he was probably screaming like a loon. His character was always my favorite from the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy. So here he is, heroic, immortalized in blue and purple.
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
Ha! I remember that scene.
You pictured the expression well, a bit more sententious.
Great Scott.
Woah! Are these going to be for sale? I would love to see the blue variant on my wall! Awesome work!
Crispy James, very crisp. I’d love to see a case study one day for one of these pieces. Great work.
Nice one. Love the work on the glasses. Not sure about the colours though. I feel there is a slight dissonance between the base colour and the highlights
Oh, by the way. I still want one :D I like those more than the Smuggler :)
Nice work! Really liking the style. I like how there is a little more light in the eyes than in the Smuggler.
Love it man. Especially like the work surrounding those glasses and bolt. Looks fast…. 88mph fast in fact.
One of your best!
James! SERIOUSLY! You are off the chain! Dude, let me know and I will get some screens burned and screen these bad boys for you.
That is killer! Great art and subject.
Epic sir.
Thanks for the kind words, gang. Really appreciate it. Had a great time working on this one, real fun.
Ah man, I watched back to the future last night. Awesome!
James you’re still the best :)
maybe one day check ‘the dude’ up here..
Great, great poster James. You really are a talented illustrator!
Back to the Future has always been my favorite movie series, so it’s pretty stinkin’ cool that my favorite graphic designer would delve into that territory. Nice work!
Do you plan on having any of these for sale at MMTWO? (Side note, I’d be stoked to pick up a copy of Robot Rock as well… if you happen to have one with you at MMTWO)
great scott! you, sir, have become my favorite illustrator!
I’d like to see a poster of a character that doesn’t exist (yet). How about something like, say, “The Stippler?” That sounds pretty catchy. And I just noticed your signature in the bottom right corner. What was the first poster that this appeared on, and have you thought of hand signing and numbering the backs?
Really nice work.. Definitely brought back some childhood memories. Awesome work…
~Rich
SOOOOO cool!
Hi James. Love your new portrait work. Discussion. If I remember correctly you are not fond of Warhol. When I saw your portraits of Doc and Han, an updated contemporary Warhol style is the first thing that popped into my head. I love Warhol and do feel he had a huge roll in the history of Modern Art. The idea of taking something visually relevant and recognizable, stylizing it, mass producing it and selling/distributing it to the public is second nature these days.
Since I’m such a huge Warhol fan, and a huge James fan, I hope the possibility of a little love between you two is possible.
Keep up the fantastic work. I’ve been viewing your blog on a daily basis for years now. Thanks for all you do!
Shawn, you don’t even know how relevant that topic is in my household these days. My girlfriend and I had this conversation 2 days ago. No foolin’. :) And it’s a weird one, let me do my best.
You’re right, I’m no fan of Warhol for a couple of reasons. I don’t like how he used his popularity to get people to do unpaid work for him (opinion), plus I’m wary if he was actually a fan of the people he portrayed in his work. He was just reflecting what was popular, not because he was passionate about it (speculation). I bracketed those 2 words because I’m not citing fact … just my point of view and is easily disputable by Warhol fans. :)
Even though I’m not a fan of Warhol, my artistic trajectory somehow brought me close to his in style (kind of) and content (sort of). Very unintentional and confusing to be quite honest. If I enjoy doing something I’ll keep exploring it, without worrying about outside influence … even if it’s an artist I’m not particularly fond of. The Warhol similarity occurred to me the other day and I had a good laugh.
Agreed. Just a side note. You should check out Ciao! Manhattan on Streaming Netflix. Interesting movie about Edie Sedgwick. Pretty bizarre and sad with some fantastic footage of that era. I love the spaceman side story they come up with. Have a good week up north!