PSYCHO (1960)

This project was inspired by Gallery1988’s ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, tribute show dedicated to the films of 1915 through 1963. The gallery wanted artists to create original works honoring films from the decades when there really were only a few major studios.

I took a film class in (junior) college, so I have an appreciation for older or classic films, however I would soon discover my taste was rather…discriminating. I looked through the list of films, and to be honest, most of them were just not vibing with me. I’d seen several of them, but as per usual, I also did not want to select an option that was going to be overrepresented so I immediately dismissed several choices. I decided instead to try finding something not pre-approved, which proved ultimately to be futile. Most of the films I watched were not very engaging, so I reached out to the gallery with some selections I did not see on the list that I recalled from the film class which were excellent.  Unfortunately, these films were also ALL foreign. The aspect of this project I completely missed was, that all of the films they listed, and alluded to (in their description of the show), were all American. So that meant I could not do most of the movies I had seen in the course I took. Dismayed, I reluctantly took another look at the list. This time I decided I would pick something possibly more popular, and one I had yet to see. 

  

Digital Pencil Render of the Bates Mansion.

 

I whittled the list down to a few selections, before locking in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 psychological thriller ‘Psycho’. The film primarily stars greats like Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Janet Leigh (Marion Crane), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), Martin Balsam (P.I.), and was nominated for several awards. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to pick a film I had not yet seen, and this still rang true with ‘Psycho’. I was familiar with the overall plot, and twists, but not the details, nor how this cast of characters even ends up together at the fateful ‘Bates Motel’, to begin with. This meant I was going to have to watch the film, which also required I rent it to stream (seriously tho’…the movie is like sixty years old, and it’s not available to watch anywhere for free at this time? I have like a gazillion streaming services!!! WTH!?).

 

I watched the film once, then quickly began trying to come up with an idea about how to layout the poster I was going to be illustrating. I thought it might be interesting to look at art movements that were taking place during the era the film was made. I was fortunate enough to have my pick from Pop Art, Psychedelic Art, Op Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art. Having just finished the film, I recall the opening had lots of segmented lines coming in and out during the credits, which was reminiscent of the Dutch Minimalist artist Piet Mondrian. I looked at Mondrian’s work and in Adobe Illustrator, I attempted to replicate his abstract method of juxtaposing multiple primary-colored squares with thick black lines segmenting them. I determined I could house an illustration in each square I chose to utilize. I know however needed to contend with what I was going to portray in each square, as well as how many I needed to have, and so forth. 

 

Digital Pencil Render of: Shower Scene/Bates Motel (1960) with the Mansion in the background.

I went back to the film, this time destructing the acts, and main plot points that would need to be narratively conveyed to the viewer chronologically. The film’s plot is not entirely complicated but basically there’s theft, murder(s), and a rather complicated family dynamic involved. When it came down to selecting the subject, there were at least two iconic images I had no choice but to include: The Bates Motel, and the Bates Mansion/Psycho House, both of which still stand today on the backlot at Universal Studios in California which you can see on their tram tour. The house is still the original build, the Motel however has been rebuilt. During the amusements park’s Halloween Horror Nights, they allow guests to walk through this portion of the set, and you get really close to the sets.

I digress…

I had decided on depicting six scenes from the film, and with both the Motel, and Mansion taking up two spots, that left with four more. I determined that the best way to portray the images was to start first with the beginning of our story which starts in Phoenix, Arizona, but ends at the Bates Motel in Fairvale, California. I determined that portraying the ‘theft’, alongside the disposing of evidence as necessary to the overall narrative, even if they are slightly arguably red herrings. The final image I knew had to be the infamous shower scene (plus I had a red square to fill, it made sense), which along with the house and hotel, I supposed only really left me with three selections to actually make.

 

One of the (many) cars sinking into the nearby marshes.

With the images in mind, I went back to the film and gathered the necessary reference I was going to need in order to do this project, and also it was a rental so the clock was ticking. With a solid start on resource material, I began first on the arduous task of illustration the Bates Mansion. As the most iconic image of all the ones I selected, I figured it should be the largest in the hierarchy, which also happened to be the blue square. While the Mansion does play a large role in the film, most of the action doesn’t even take place there. The most difficult task was the porch and surrounding foliage around the perimeter of the house. Satisfied with the image, I continued to develop the other images developing each sketch in Procreate on my iPad using the Peppermint Pencil. Most of the illustration’s didn’t take a lot of time except for the Motel.  I had to get more reference online for the details on the façade which proved tricky considering it had been rebuilt since the film was made. I’m a stickler for staying to true to the original, and I wanted to make sure that the Motel sketch looked like the original. There were also some challenges with depicting the vehicles in this piece as well. I had to track down the makes for each of the scenes with the cars, since I could not get clear shots from the film (lots of dark nighttime footage, and the film is also black and white). Marion’s car in the beginning of the film according to the internet is 1957 Ford Sedan, and during my image development, I somehow ended up with reference for a 1957 Ford Skyliner. I’m not sure if this is the car that Marion trades-in for, or has originally, or it this is just a mistake on my part when I was gathering research. The Skyliner is depicted in the bottom yellow panel, with the Sedan (I believe) in the upper smaller yellow panel.  The smaller image was based on reference from the film, so whatever the vehicle type in that scene, it’s accurately depicted. I also had to outsource my reference for the skyline in the bottom panel of Phoenix. I found a postcard from the 1960’s of the city that I used to historically represent an accurate portrayal.

Digital pencil render and tonal paint of cash from Act 1

With the primary sketches done, I edited them in Adobe Photoshop on my desktop, and once I was satisfied with the layout, I transferred the file back to my iPad to begin painting some minor details in Procreate. I naturally started with the Mansion, and worked my way down to the final (or first image), of Marion driving from Phoenix to Fairvale. I decided on leaving the image within it’s relatively primary color scheme, and simply use varying tints and shades instead to imply contrast or dimension within.  Since I had rendered most of the images with the intention of blocking in color, it wasn’t a difficult task, and thankfully didn’t take too long. My only other obstacle was with the shower scene. I originally planned on having the shower running, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how I would do this and make it look ‘right’. I also wanted to allude to what transpires in this scene without giving too much away (not that it isn’t world infamous anyways but still, show not tell, right?).

 

The Bates Motel (1960), and Marion (Janet Leigh), fleeing Phoenix.

Upon completing the painting process, I took the image back into Photoshop, and began editing it. I cleaned up all the edges, and even went into Adobe Illustrator to readjust the Mondrian layout. I also noticed that both the shower, and the Motel scene weren’t exactly strongly contrasting in the piece enough to see some of the finer details. In the shower illustration, there was a complete lack of contrast between the tile, wall, and shower head. The water droplets were also very underwhelming. I ended up creating another layer and added white to the tile area only, then adjusted the opacity until it had a slight contrast as too much looked off. The Motel was just entirely too dark, of course this was when I noticed the file was set to RGB, which would explain the darker look of the image. I immediately changed the format to CMYK and was taken back by how much brighter the image read. I was also a bit irritate at myself for not noticing this error earlier. My guess is that when I imported the AI file it was formatted as RGB, and since I based the file off its import, it probably took its color profile as well.

Oops.

The motel looked great after the profile change, the shower…questionable, but I was going to leave it for now as I had time to get it proofed before the deadline to roll the dice on it. I did however add some highlights to the water droplets on the shower image, and dropped an Overlay on the neon sign in front of the Motel to give it more contrast and a bit of a glow. Satisfied, and exhausted, I sent it off to proof. Thankfully it came back clean, so there was no necessary edits to be made.

I started the piece on January 8^th, 2023, with the initial sketching stages taking me approximately twenty seven (27), and a half hours (29 minutes to be exact) to complete . The painting process began on January 17^th, and lasted roughly Twenty Nine (29), hours and Twenty Three (23) minutes-ish, for a total of Fifty Six (56) hours, and Fifty Two (52) minutes-ish. This is of course not including the time it took me to build the layout in Adobe Illustrator, or the time I spent editing it in Adobe Photoshop, but I’d estimate it was about another six (6) hours at least, so that leaves us around Sixty Two (62) hours or so for this entire piece which I concluded on February 5^th, 2023. A bit longer than the Blade image which is similar in style, interesting. 

 

Final (11" x 17") image tribute image to Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960).

The 11” x 17” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, a group show dedicated to the films celebrating the classics from 1915 to 1963.  The show was originally scheduled to run from April 8^th, 2023, through April 22^nd, 2023 with all remaining works available the following day (April 9^th) at noon. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.*

 

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.

You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.

 

*Apparently the prints sold out and are no longer available.

 

UPDATE:

10/23/23

While going through the archives I discovered the final remaining five (5) prints. I contacted the gallery, and they are now in their possession. If interested in purchasing please check out their website.

 

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