The Neverending Story

This particular piece, dedicated to the 1984 film of the same name (‘The Neverending Story’), had been in development for some time, mostly in sketches, and was originally planned for another showcase entirely.  When that opportunity never came to fruition, I shelved the concept for another time, with the intention to work on it in between other assignments as a passion project.

As luck would have it, I was invited by ‘Gallery1988’ to participate in their annual 'Crazy 4 Cult Group Show', which revolves around artwork dedicated to cult films throughout the decades. The film fit the criteria, and I set about working on my vision.

The film itself holds a special place for me in my adolescence.  I recall seeing the film with my family at the movie theater, and it resonated with me deeply at the time.

For anyone born after VHS, the film takes place during the early 1980’s, and features a rather limited cast of characters including the main protagonist ‘Bastian’ (Barret Oliver), who narrates the adventures of the hero ‘Atreyu’ (Noah Hathaway), and his quest to save the world of  ‘Fantasia’.  The film traverses the two realms of ‘Earth’ and ‘Fantasia’, while connecting them through the persona of ‘Sebastian’.  The film is a tale of adolescence itself, covering many topics, from bullying to death, and touches on the expectations of masculine roles in society.

The plan for this piece was to capture the most memorable, and pertinent moments in the film.  I started by first rewatching the film, and taking reference photos for my design.  Originally I had planned for the piece to be framed by the ‘Mirror Gate’, and flanked by the ‘Southern Oracle’ Sphinxes. I was also going to include ‘Sebastian’ at the base of the image, reading the book from which the film gets its title (pictured above).

Having a layout in mind, I decided I wanted to do a series of layers, much like a shadowbox, with the back most layer being the ‘beginning’ of the film, and the layer closest to the viewer being the ‘end’.  The layers themselves were each individually sketched out, them scanned into Illustrator, and vectored out.  After each layer was vectored and done, I then arranged them into Photoshop, and detailed them in Painter.  The file itself was enormous, and required me to collapse a lot of the layers, as I got closer to finishing it. The color scheme itself was a fluke, but a fortunate one nevertheless, and I feel it really captures the nostalgia for the time as well as the film.   The original tones I planned on were quickly discarded, after I began the detail work. 

I started with the sky, and upon finishing, decided the pastel-like colors were a better fit.  The most challenging part of the piece was two-fold.  The detail, and the size.  There is a plethora of detail that on some level may never be fully appreciated because as I layered the image in Photoshop, adjustments were made and some items became much smaller than originally intended.  I also ended up making the final print much larger (20” x 30”), than anticipated in order to offset the small details.  The only other challenges I had with this piece were how to incorporate both ‘The Nothing’ (the films antagonist I suppose you could say), and ‘G’mork’ (‘The Nothing’s’ envoy of sorts) into the piece.  If you’ve seen the film, you could probably appreciate the challenge.  Without spoiling the film, ‘The Nothing’, has no tangible form, and ‘G’mork’ is a large wolf.  I ended up combining the two, and for those with good eyes, or knowledge of the film, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them.

As mentioned previously, I was going to end the piece with ‘Bastian’ at the base reading the novel, however, due to time constrains, I ended up choosing to use the book itself to frame the piece.

I truly enjoy working on pieces like this one, because it gives me the opportunity to include so many details, and hidden gems for both true fans, or casual observers.

The illustration is entirely digital, started in Illustrator, arranged in Photoshop, and detailed meticulously by hand in Painter.

The piece was originally on display at Gallery 1988 during their annual Crazy 4 Cult Show (‘Crazy 4 Cult 12’), and ran from December 7^th – 29^th 2018.

The image was available in a limited run, and is no longer available on the gallery's website (sold-out).

I may eventually be adding it to my store.

UPDATE (4/14/19)
I've adding the illustration to my etsy store here.