Danger Zone!!! (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Post)
by Martin
My, how time flies. To think that it’s been a year since I last updated this blog, it brings a tear to my eye… all those moments nearly lost in time, like tears… in rain. But seriously, starting right now I’ll be picking some past projects for a look behind the stage. First on the list: FX’s Archer.
As you may probably know, FX’s animated spy comedy show “Archer” draws on the tradition of suave super spies with cool gadgets —and beautiful women— at hand. That tradition was the main reference for this promotional image, which actually started out as a hard-nosed, out of the ’60s film poster. This first sketch had a more realistic approach to the characters, as a tongue-in-cheek play on the audience’s expectancies for the first season:
Eventually we settled on a style that was less confusing, and more representative of the series’ animation.
The composition is peppered with a lot of inside jokes relevant to the series, and the inevitable clichés. My favorites are the Shockwave Mice and Generic Disposable Thug #1 and 2.
Luckily I still have the temporary files for the image (I save iterations due to the constant fear of losing data over a computer crash), so I can show you how this one came to be from sketch to final. Two words: Mon – tage!
Dear Martin.
Today I happened to visit for first time your blog. Your work is admirable.
What strikes me most is the way you draw the “ink lines” in illustrator. Not only they look like stroke lines from a traditional fine ink brush but the ink variation is very balanced and easy for the eye to “understand” even in a black & white drawing.
I used to draw with traditional media but lines like these were difficult to achieve. Even with my wacom.
Well that’s all.
Thank you for your time
This completely rocks.