The Killing

As part of their annual line-up for 2024, Gallery1988 was having a show dedicated to the works of the late great director, Stanley Kubrick. I have seen a handful of Kubrick’s films including ‘The Shining’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, so I was familiar with his eccentric process of film making. What I was not familiar with, was Kubrick’s earlier works, prior to finding what I would call his ‘voice’, or signature style. I decided that I wanted to explore early Kubrick, and perhaps bring some attention to his less famous works. I also wanted to avoid doing fan service to his wildly popular works, particularly ‘The Shining’, as there is a plethora of artwork dedicated to the film already.

 

Grainy still I was using as a reference for both the sketches and color (the film is black and white).

I started first by going through Kubrick’s portfolio, and seeing what, if anything, stood out to me. I went through and read the synopsis of many of his films, and then decided that I should probably check to see if any of them were on an available (streaming) platform to watch. At the time, ‘The Shining’ was playing on cable, so I was able to record that as a backup if needed. I then ended up watching a few of his films on ‘Pluto TV’, which I highly recommend to anyone. It’s a free service (from what I understand), and they have all sorts of modern, and classic material to watch (some on demand).

 

I ended up settling on his 1956 film-noir, ‘The Killing’, written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson, which was based on the Lionel White novel, ‘Clean Break’.

The story, which I will try not to spoil, is basically an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style crime heist film featuring many moving parts, and a colorful cast of characters. The film features the performances of Sterling Hayden (Johnny), Coleen Gray (Fay), Vince Edwards (Val), Jay C. Flippen (Marvin), Marie Windsor (Sherry), Elisha Cook Jr. (George), and Timothy Carey (Nikki), among many, many other.

It also it heralded as one of the biggest influences on Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’, and credited for attracting the attention of legendary actor Kirk Douglas. Douglas sought out Kubrick after seeing this film to direct the war drama ‘Paths of Glory’.

Kubrick (allegedly) also took no payment for this film.

Incredible.

 

One of the many promotional images for the film I used for inspiration.

After finishing the film, I started to sketch some concepts for an illustration based on it in Procreate on my iPad Pro. Initially I was going to illustrate the main players and place them within the title letters of the movie, in vignettes. I found a production image with the film’s title that I felt would work best with my vision. I still however needed an illustration for the background of the lettering, and thought about how I could ‘encompass’ the theme in one image.

I settled on a scene, which I believe sums that up nicely, at least in my opinion. It’s also hard for me to elaborate without completely ruining the entire film, but I will say this, I found it almost hilariously ironic for a picture of this nature.

That said, the scene takes place at an airport where there is an incident with some luggage.

The idea came about rather quickly, and I got the initial sketch down for my concept. At the time I was also working on some other projects (this one and this one), so I put this one on hold, and would jump back a few months later.

 

Final layout with completed sketches ready for color.

 

When I did return to the image, I noticed I was short on time meaning my original concept would need some adjusting. I started by first vectoring out the typography in Adobe Illustrator as I could not determine the font used. I then adjusted the layout, and title until I was satisfied with its scaled and placement.

I also determined that illustrating each character no matter how small was going to be a momentous task, so I instead thought about placing a single image within the typography instead. Since the film is basically a heist at a race track I figured that would contrast nicely with the background image, telling the narrative of the film without revealing too many details.

 

Title and sketch of jockeys inside the font.

With all my concepts in place, and reference material attained, I set to work illustrating each individual piece. I started first the airport scene and did my best to capture its likeness. It was rather difficult given the graininess of the imagery I had to work with, so determining where some things began, ended, or even what they were was arduous. My next task was then to illustrate the luggage and its contents as it fills the air. This was more enjoyable, but quickly became tedious (for obvious reasons).

I drew each one of those.

Each. One.

When that was done, I had to track down a picture of jockeys on a race-track, as the film doesn’t really contain any decent shots I could work with. I ended up using a reference from the film for the jockey’s clothing (for continuity), and a modern still. I then drew them out in the same manner as the rest of the illustrated elements, and then prepared for color.

 

Final colored image 11"x 17" on 100lb Cover.

The color process didn’t take too long, except for the luggage contents that we simply won’t talk about.

The horses and jockeys were also a bit of a diva, but overall, not too terrible.

The editing process however…that was a different story.

My initial gut feeling was the image was entirely too dark, I knew it.

I tried my best to adjust the contrast, and brightness on the illustration, but eventually I determine I needed to lay eyes on paper to see if any of it was making legible.

I ordered a proof from SGX, and much to my chagrin it needed more adjusting, but only on a few elements.

 

The entire piece was developed in Procreate on my iPad which I started on October 16^th, 2023, and finished on January8^th, 2024. I spent approximately twenty (20) hours, and twenty nine (29) minutes, drawing each of the images with the pencil tool, followed by another forty eight (48) hours, and twenty five (25) minutes digitally painting the piece. I would then proceed to spend at least one (1) hour in Adobe Illustrator creating the title, and another two (2) hours, and thirty (30) minutes, editing the image in Adobe Photoshop. Total time spent, was about seventy-one (71) hours, and twenty-four (24)minutes.

 

Final 11" X 17" image on 100lb Cover.

The 11” x 17” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s ‘Imagination & Technology: A Tribute to Kurbrick’, a tribute show to the works of the late great director Stanley Kubrick. The show was originally scheduled to run from February 16^th, 2024, through March 2^nd, 2024, with all remaining works available on the gallery’s website. 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.

Website: www.michaelstiles.com 

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