Artist of the hour: Kevin tong

kevin tong's awesome homer's odyssey inspired print THE SUB-SURFACE is available through his site. You should totally buy it.

http://tragicsunshine.com/storevarious.htm

Kevin tong is a freelance illustrator and has created posters for oni press, the black keys, sonic youth, jimmy eat world, alamo drafthouse, chuck palahniuk, the appleseed cast and literally hundreds more.

opening shot.

I am writing/illustrating a short story, If you're one of the four people who read this blog you will already know this, if not, check the previous posts for the skinny. This isn't the official opening: it will change. I've already got seventeen various ideas to open the story, one in particular is a self indulgent steadicam homage, thats right, Kubrick and Raimi, i'm takin' it from ya.

more on that later.

I want to animate this and hopefully self publish too.

but more on that later.

also, how awesome is the scott pilgrim game! most awesome, that's what.

lost words: sketchbook stuff.

Wilderness has become Lost Words now.

A man wakes up in a cold, black forest. His face covered in blood. His memory non-existent. Woken by a small raccoon, who seems to have a mystic connection with the forest. They venture deep into the forest to uncover the man's past and future.

from top:

proposed logo idea.

raccoon crib sheet.

Arto/ the man crib sheet.

Revised opening concept.

In a nutshell this is one part memento, one part antichrist and possibly one part studio ghibili (mononoke and pom poko in particular).

The story will be non linear and feature experimental typography and layout, however, more on that later.

The full short story will hopefully be available through the blog september time.

also the raccoon will talk.

*I'm trying to get Laurence Fishburne for the audiobook.

"Wake up." The raccoon whispered.

Wilderness

(working title), proposed opening.

This is subject to change, but any feedback would be welcome.

More on this later.

return of the blog.

"awkward pathetic generic whiny statement about hiatus."

I'm seriously trying to get my act together and write and draw something cool, but more on that later. For now, enjoy this cavalcade!

From top:

404

an image taken from my "If I Was.." series.

Complex

another image taken from the "If I Was" series.

Experimental studio Ghibili posters.

Initially began as doodles while watching Miyazaki's Porco Rosso and Princess Mononoke they transformed into an alternative movie poster, sorta representing my stream of conscience.

current stuff:

scott pilgrim 1-6, Liars: Liars, everything by Hot Water Music and Inception.

More stuff soon!

a prayer: Development.

This and "just" seem to be my main focus at the moment. I did some quick pencil layouts for the story, so a pretty...pretty... pretty constructive day. Hopefully this gives you an idea of where the story and visuals are going .

There will be a cavalcade of images on this by the end of next week once the "boss" approves.

Godspeed.

project two: Cinematic Typographic Responses

The brief was to create a typographic response from scripts of classic (pre-1980) and contemporary (post-1980) cinema. Here we go.

A l i e n (1979) Ridley Scott.

Alien's pacing is masterful, for the majority of the film nothing happens (hold on), then Kane's sorry stomach bursts, hell breaks loose in the bloodiest way possible. The hierarchy was based around the films tagline of "in space no one can hear you scream." Claustrophobic and narrow layout of text against a vast, intimidating and foreboding use of space. However, this is subverted when the alien bursts out of Kane; text now becomes cramped, irregular and noisier with a lot of spilled ink, before returning to the previous standard layout but, minimal with the space and noise more foreboding then ever.

M e m e n t o (2000) Christopher Nolan.

Memento is told backwards and forwards, so is this response, it's protagonist Leonard Shelby has no short term memory. The scene in question is where Natalie (the antagonist) reveals her conspiracy to Leonard, who won't be able to remember. He scrambles to get a pen before he forgets. This scene was a nightmare to create a response for: I had way too many ideas and because of my attachment to the film I didn't want to cut any of them. The response didn't have any particular layout or grid, it was important to represent Leonard's disability; the text had to be confusing to read, with certain unimportant words being more attention grabbing than the important ones. Leonard's "distracting" type was made by cutting into electrical tape. I don't know why I went for the jazz look, but it lends itself to the neo-noir narrative of the film.

enjoy!

more spreads coming soon, with some better lit pictures