How do they do it? The tribute poster wizards at the Mondo Gallery seem to have a special gift for condensing the strangeness, beauty and excitement of iconic movies into graphics that capture their essence — and become works of art in their own right.
Poster geeks looking for answers can glimpse a behind-the-scenes peek at the creative process at Mondo in the new aptly titled exhibition In Progress, which opened last weekend and tuns through February 23 at the Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas.
The show features mind-melting sketches, concepts and line art prepped by design auteurs including Martin Ansin, Ken Taylor, Kevin Tong, Jay Shaw and Tom Whalen en route to final products celebrating Creature From the Black Lagoon, Planet of the Apes, Pan’s Labyrinth, Iron Giant and other cult classics.
Read more from the Wired article HERE.
Artist Kevin Tong talks about his inspiration for his Invisible Man Print:
“When I first started working on The Invisible Man, I knew I would have to find a way to show his body, communicate the he was invisible, and also, that he was going insane,” says Tong. “The bandage unraveling seemed like a good metaphor for his sanity unraveling and showing him fully dressed without a head made it very surreal.”
The Process: Tong says, “My first step is to do a loose sketch in blue pencil. This sketch has more value than my usual posters, so I did a greyscale value study before taking it to final, resulting in the three pieces I have in the show for that poster. Since the film was in black and white, it seemed strange to make the poster full color. I didn’t use color in the poster which sets this one apart from most of my other work, which usually uses super bright colors in some capacity.”
Invisible Man sketch by Kevin Tong
Final Variant Invisible Man poster by Kevin Tong