YELLOWJACKETS (2022)

I started developing this piece almost immediately after finishing the first season of Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ in January of 2022. I wasn’t entirely sure if the image would ever get used but I was inspired, and in case I could utilize the concept it might be worth developing. I quickly sketched down a few concepts and included some notes in case I ever returned to the image. Thankfully, I was contacted by Gallery1988 to participate in their ‘Idiot Box’ show for the 2022 year, and thankfully this piece fit nicely into their theme. 

 

Preliminary sketch with notes.

 

I typically like to pick more establish shows for this particular exhibit, but I chose ‘Yellowjackets’ because the story, characters, and theme really resonated with me on several different levels. I’ll try not to give away too many details or spoilers, but I would really suggest watching the series if you’re a fan of horror or suspense.  The show is loosely based around a high school soccer team in the late 1990’s (1996 I believe), who are all bound for Nationals on the other side of the country. Sadly, the teens never make it to their destination, and that’s where the story really picks up. In the first few minutes of the pilot episode the tone gets set rather immediately, and if you can get past that, well, buckle up. If I were to be rather reductive, I’d describe it as the story of ‘Alive’ meets ‘Lord of the Flies’, but with teenage girls instead. The ‘twist’ here is not everyone who survived, well…survived… as demonstrated in the present where we see our cast’s living adult counterparts, dealing with the aftermath of the events twenty-five years later. The production boasts an amazing cast that includes Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Melanie Lynskey.

 

My concept for the piece was relatively simple yet bold as usual.  The show has a very large cast and I wanted to find a way to represent each character without making the image too cluttered or confusing. In my sketch I settled on utilizing silhouettes for the ‘survivors’ of Fight 2525, creating a triangular format out of them with the central figure being larger and more realized or detailed. With the characters in place, I next wanted to include the major environments from the first season, such as: the stump, lake, cabin, and crash site. My next goal was to fill any of the negative space remaining with imagery from the show. Thankfully, the show does not lack in the visual department and I carefully curated multiple images to litter the illustration in my usual fashion. My next step was to select a color palette for the image. This is not an area of strength for me, so I ended up googling several color combinations before finally settling on the blue, indigo, violet, and contrasting yellows.

With my colors selected and my (three [3] hour) sketch completed in Procreate, I moved onto developing the multiple images I would need to flesh it out. I first started with creating the silhouettes for each member that survived the plane crash. In order to do this, I had to go back and rewatch the show multiple times. The reason being is that some of the girls in the background of the scenes are never introduced to the audience, and a few of the ancillary characters are practically ghosts themselves. The show is really centered on four characters who the audience knows survived the catastrophe (and are displayed prominently in the final image). After determining the final count of characters, and image reference I needed, I set to work on developing the individual silhouettes (ultimately taking me twenty-three and half [23.5] hours). 

 

I then moved the project back to my desktop in order to arrange the silhouettes in Adobe Photoshop.  The reason for this is because, unfortunately, anything upscaled in Procreate loses its crisp edges resulting in a blurry mess the larger it becomes. I also know that Procreate limits the number of layers you can have depending on the ratio of the file. To circumvent this I adjusted the layout in Photoshop, saved the legacy file, and then flattened the images in order to save space for when I returned to Procreate. It was also then that I discovered a typical issue I have with working between these two platforms, dithering*. Depending on the brushes used, anything with a softened edge will be filled by Photoshop with information that shouldn’t be there. It looks like a white film, and it’s upsetting. I decided that was a battle for another day and returned to developing imagery for the piece in Procreate. (*if you’ve been reading these, then you’re probably familiar with this issue I have been experiencing for some time.)

In Procreate I continued illustrating the different images and environments planned, making several changes to the layout in the process.  Eventually I settled on a more collaged layout with the silhouettes in order to preserve some space for other iconic imagery. At some point I also redesigned the background, slightly, to match the reference imagery I had. It was sometime shortly after that when I began to experiment with finding a solution to my dithering issue. I knew from my previous issues with my Gremlins piece, I could simply collapse the layers, but I didn’t want to do that.  I wanted to maintain the freedom of moving my images if I needed to do so, and collapsing the layers defeated the entire purpose.

That’s when I tried to export each layer as a PNG file (Portable Network Graphic).

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this was the droid that I was looking for the whole time!!! It worked, that’s what I’m trying to say. With this new knowledge in hand, I was able to transfer over each individual illustration and piece it back together like a puzzle.  It was a lot easier than it sounds, and sure as hell beats cleaning the edges up AGAIN in Procreate (I’m looking at you Conan and Gremlins)!!!! All I had to do was export a flattened image of the version from Procreate back to Photoshop.

 

This discovery will help expedite my work so much faster. The things you learn.  I tried to find a solution myself on the internet months ago, but there wasn’t one available.  I did eventually find an obscure forum within an art website that had the very solution I ‘discovered’, but only recently (I rushed to internet to share my findings, sue me).

Eventually I returned to Procreate on the iPad and finished up the last remaining pieces of my illustration (resulting in a total of eighty-six [86] hours digitally painting). With the image finalized, I contacted my liaison at SGX in order to secure a proof. Thankfully, I only needed one pass on the image, however I did forget to digitally sign it, so I had to resubmit another file for my finals.

I started this piece on January 25^th, 2022 and finished it July 25^th, 2022, spending just shy of one hundred and thirteen (113) hours in Procreate creating the piece. All edits, adjustments, as well as the layout, were done in Adobe Photoshop. The image was due August 6^th, 2022, with the show opening on August 20^th, 2022 at Gallery 1988, and running until September 3^rd, 2022 as part of their ‘Idiot Box’ group show. At this time, the 11” x 17” image printed on white pearl linen is limited to a run of , and available exclusively 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.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

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THE SOCIAL NETWORK

This piece is an example of throwing caution to the wind. I am not an abstract artist what-so-ever, and as a creative, I am truly embarrassed to admit that I don’t ‘get it’ very often, or ever, in most cases. With that in mind, perspective (or arguably personal taste), shouldn’t prohibit me from drawing upon these works for inspiration, right?  This would be my second venture into this ‘space’ the first in this style being my ‘These Strange Things…’ piece for the Paul Thomas Anderson show at Gallery1988 in December (2021).  Even with that piece, my work has lately started to take on more of a graphical look.  This is my ‘abstract phase’ I guess for any historians out there willing to following along, or for when they unearth some sacred treasure with a vague signature and ‘QR’ code sticker on the back. That or it’s my ‘director series’…? 

The theme for this piece, I should note before I take you on another random unrelated tour of my mind, was based around director David Fincher. Or more importantly, illustrating one of his features. I recall seeing the email and was both elated & anxious.  I love Fincher’s work.  I’ve seen most of his films and grew up watching the music videos he worked on early in his career (unknowingly).  My favorite project of his has always been ‘Se7en’I saw it in the theaters by accident, and became (healthily) obsessed with his work. I’d watch anything his name was on and was usually rewarded.  If he’s reading this, I have one request, Mr. Fincher, David if I may, please for the love of all things holy, finish ‘Mindhunter’!!!! Damn that show is intense.  I digress…

Looking over Fincher’s work I knew I shouldn’t pick anything already too saturated.  For me that meant no ‘Fight Club’or ‘Se7en’, which left me with ‘The Social Network’. Outside of ‘Mindhunter’, this had to be my most favorite recent-ish work of his.  It is such a cross section of human psyche that it haunts me how well it was done.  This however would not have been possible if it was not for the masterful and Oscar-worthiness of the entire team involved. The adaptation (of Ben Mezrich’s ‘The Accidental Billionares’), by Aaron Sorkin (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), the music….can we talk about the music?!!! Holy cow, also the music by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), which created such incredible tension, and the editing done by Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), yeah…it was great film. It was also nominated for eight Oscars in total, but ONLY won three. So, there’s that. 

I got to work rewatching the film and collecting some reference materials for my illustration.  As usual the final images you seen here were developed over time, and it transformed at least twice before I settled on my final layout/design.  My first idea is something I may return to, so for that you’ll have to stay tuned, but I will tell you it was a quote.  The second phase I had a better idea of what I was going to do, but no clear layout, just a bunch of imagery I knew I wanted to include and it was going to look something like an old Facebook profile.  I was firm however on three things:  the color scheme, the focal point, and a design element to relate it to technology.

At this point I looked at some of my previous work and decided with at least two out of three elements nailed down (color/focal point), I should just start something.  Taking inspiration from the illustration I mentioned earlier (first paragraph…I’ll wait), I painted the background in Procreate, and the returned to my reference material. Since I was going to keep things mostly abstract and only planned on having one actual realistically rendered element, I would need to choose anything I could use as a ‘symbol’ of some kind (be it logo in the case of Sean Parker’s representation here with Napster), or even typography (with the detailing of Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged hacking for Facemash).

I finalized the layout rather quickly after determining what I was going to represent, and what was not going to make the cut.  I settled on the pint glass of beer (which originally was a Beck’s bottle as in order to true to the context of both film and alleged ‘facts’), the ‘equation’ written by Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), on Mark’s dorm window. I still needed a technological element to connect everything to fill in the dead space and as a method to convey more of the story.  I knew the bottom of the work, much like the ‘These Strange Things…’ inspired piece, would have silhouettes of iconic buildings/structures that could be easily identifiable.  

I turned to the web, which eventually led me somehow to circuitry images that I ended up using for inspiration. I then took my background into Adobe Illustrator, and began constructing the silhouetted buildings I needed for my base along with the window & circuitry.  It didn’t take me entirely too long to design all three and take it back into Procreate. Meanwhile back on the iPad I went about finishing the illustration/design, detailing the central beer glass, window (banners*), and rowers. Upon finishing I got it ready to send to SGX for proofing. (*Those banner images were hella hard to find.  The Greek letters were in the movie, but the Phoenix Club’s symbol has been almost wiped form the internet, I’m guessing because of all the controversy around these Harvard Final Club’s and their ‘sunsetting’ back in 2017).

Covid, however, was not done with supply chain and so the paper I had so diligently asked my printer to hold for me the day I started the image, was not yet available…yay… Eventually, much closer to the due date, the paper arrived, and there was one more final hiccup, because…life, amiright? After one proof, I was able to correct any ‘issues’ (being only the rowers changing in hue as they were lost in background), I got ready for my final round. I originally scaled the image to 11” x 17”, for the sole purpose of having the extra layers available on Procreate.  You see non-artist types, the larger the starting size, the less layers you have, even at an industry standard threshold (300, but really 600 IMO at least).  Thankfully, upscaling can be done in Adobe Photoshop without error. You DO NOT under any circumstances want to upscale any image or item in Procreate, it will become hideously pixelated, losing most of the detail.  Wait to do it in Photoshop or other software that has the capacity to upscale an image without destroying it. The problem here was none of that, and I’m pretty sure I’ve issued this warning before. Typically, when I get the White Pearl Linen Paper from SGX, it comes in sheets of 13” x 19”. So as not to waste any of the precious commodity, I enlarged my final image to 12” x 18”. The paper SGX had, was however, also 12” x 18”, meaning some of my image was going to be lost, AND it was not going to fit in the frame I needed it to for the show. Or at least I thought. Luckily, I was able to get things worked out (with help from my liaison at SGX), and the final image fit beautifully in the frame.  

The final illustration is hidden with ‘Easter Eggs’, entirely digital, started May 2^nd and finished May 11^th totaling about twenty-two (22) hours. The image was primarily developed in Procreate, with some design work done in Illustrator, and minor editing in Photoshop. What’s that? Well, I could tell you everything I ‘hid’ in this piece (another Stiles Trademark historians!!!), but I’m not going to, so either enjoy or look away, you’re ruining the ‘mystique’.

The piece (limited to a run of 11), was originally featured at Gallery 1988’s ‘Political Menace & Moral Despair A Tribute to David Fincher’, which ran from June 11^th, 2022 through June 25^th, 2022. The image is roughly 12” x 18”, and is printed on white pearl linen paper.  Please check the gallery’s website for all available works related to 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 and painting. 

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

Etsy: Stiles of Art

Threadless: mistiles

LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

IG:  stiles1978

TikTok: stiles1978

Pinterest: Michael Stiles

Tumblr:  stiles1978

Twitter: stiles_of_art

FINAL FANTASY (1987/1990)

If you know me at all, you know that I love video games (I mean I do have some other stuff in my portfolio dedicated to the medium so, there’s that, and that, you get the point). Sorry, I just do.  I honestly believe they deserve so much more appreciation than they receive, both developmentally, and artistically.  They are literally works of art, especially now.  They’ve also taken the classic clichéd and derivative trope of good versus evil, and invested some actual writing that goes beyond the abstract narrative. This is why whenever I am given the task of illustrating anything related to the genre, I JUMP at the chance. Thankfully the opportunity presented itself in the form of Gallery 1988’s ‘oNE Sheet’, a show they’ve done the last few years dedicated to the games on a broad selection of classic platforms (NES, Super NES, Genesis, & Turbo Grafx) . The only problem?  There are literally too many franchises and personal loves to pull inspiration from.  If I was given free rein to ONLY do video game covers, that would be a dream job, or at least it seems like it could be. I’ve always wanted to work in the video game industry, but sadly I lack the aptitude for programming.

 

I came up with a list which included close to forty titles.  I narrowed that down to fifteen finalists, and eventually a foursome leaving only: ‘Castlevania’ (which I already had a sketch for), ‘Final Fantasy’ (our winner), ‘Kid Icarus’, or ‘Secret of Mana’. I’m not sure what swayed me to towards the 1990 (’87 in Japan), classic ‘Final Fantasy’, but I went with my gut and pursued it which thankfully panned out beautifully.  This is a rare example of a layout/design I had ‘conceptualized’, come to fruition.

 

I started the design by first drawing inspiration from the original game box, and promotional poster.  I recall it vividly, as it’s a game, and franchise very close to my own heart.  I wanted to capture the essence of the old poster but give it a modern twist. I also wanted to keep the design very symbolic without character imagery, primarily because this first installment had no clear lead character.  The game was originally designed with only character classes to choose from with preordained avatars assigned to each one.  They could be named, but that was the extent of their customization, and your options were limited to: ‘Fighter’, ‘Thief’, ‘Black Belt’, ‘Red Mage’, ‘White Mage’, or ‘Black Mage’. You were also limited to only four party members, all available from the beginning. In relation to my design, each of the four warriors in the game, was charged with a dormant crystal corresponding to each of the four basic elements in nature (Earth, Fire, Water, Air).  The goal in the game was to find and defeat the ‘four fiends’ (‘the Lich’, ‘Kary’, ‘the Kraken’, and ‘Tiamat’), in order to bring light back to the crystals, and ultimately defeat Chaos. With that explained (hopefully clearly), since each playable character is variable depending on the gamer, the only constant I had to work with were the fiends themselves.  While I could have simply depicted each fiend, which in retrospect (like literally as I write this), sounds like a really awesome idea (variant?), I do like my works to contain more mystique.  Instead, I opted to use the locations from the game where each of the four fiends reside.  The flying fortress of ‘Tiamat’ is already well represented in the original poster/cover design, so I knew that wouldn’t work as the central figure, which sucks because I drew an amazing floating castle (IMO), rather quickly, and that airship is BEGGING to be seen at a larger scale. I ended up settling for ‘Kary’s’ volcano lair, as it had the most scenery to work with. 

 

I then created my ‘crystals’ in Adobe Illustrator, and eventually settled on a layout that would work with the title I was planning on adding later and the logo’s I’d need to place at the bottom.  I then began sketching in Proceate the different fiend environments based on memory and the research I did on the game.  I quickly settled on both ‘Tiamat’s’ locale, and ‘Kary’s’.  The Earth, and Water fiends, were a bit more allusive.  As I was drawing their settings I began to simply imagine what the area could look like. This was my opportunity to give these areas a redesign I realized so I took a different approach to them.  In the game, the ‘Lich’s’ Earth Cavern is within a swamp area at the base of the mountains. I went through a few variations for the ‘Lich’s’ domain, before finally settling on the current version, and notably, it’s the only fiend lair in the game accessible by foot.  The ‘Kraken’s’ Sunken Shrine was a different story though.  In the game, the temple is accessible from the third floor, and only by the barrel after some other related quests (naturally it’s an RPG).  I think with any of these, this is probably where I strayed the most from the original.  Initially I was going to do a Sunken Shrine using a Greek style structure to keep within the rather (arguably), western design of this game.  I ditched that after some thought, and figured I’d much rather design something that looked like it should be there.  I began looking at underwater images for both lighting reference, and rock/coral formations.  Eventually I settled on the final design we have here, which I think feels more appropriate.

My next task was to ink everything in, which took some time. Upon finishing, I began the color process, which for once, I had a clear plan for.  I knew I wanted to represent each crystal with a specified palette that stayed closely within a set of values (like the reds and oranges for the central volcano image).  I also planned on using their complimentary hues in order to get the images to contrast.  I had planned for this earlier, by also making sure that those scenarios, and their complimentary colored ones were distanced a bit in order to keep the eye continuously moving. There’s always a point, or aspect on an illustration will give me challenges in any given piece ranging from:  layout, design, a pose, lighting, value, contrast, even a combination of all of them, but the typical culprit is color.  Especially if I am using multiples and not just a set of values (monochromatic).  I have improved in this area greatly but I still struggle sometimes, so I was very thankful that this piece came together so vividly.

 

With the interiors filled, I still needed to address the title treatment, and logos at the base.  I went back to my desktop, and began designing my icons, and font in Illustrator.  I decided earlier when I began the color process to eliminate as much yellow as possible from my choices, as I had simply envisioned the title in this value.  I also didn’t want the title to compete with the rest of image, and it proved to be a good choice.  I also decided to add some subtle design elements to the crystals as they weren’t reading as glass or reflective to me. 

 

Having completed the image, it was still lacking something.  I took the image back into Procreate one last time and did some experimenting with the different textured brushes available on the application.  Eventually with enough tweaking, I managed to come up with what we have now.  I think it adds a bit of implied ‘magic’, that the overall illustration lacked. 

 

Satisfied with the work, I sent it over to SGX in order to get a proof of the image before I ordered my finals.  Thankfully, the image didn’t even need the proofing which was also just an amazing feeling.  Unfortunately, this show had some image size guidelines, or really preferences, by the gallery.  Thankfully I was able to locate an alternative printer (Costco), that could print the images ‘affordably’ at the size requested (16” x 20”). The gallery was willing to accommodate a smaller size, but I had already planned for a larger format, so it just worked out that way.  I also wasn’t planning on using any type of special material for these, as the gallery had also requested a larger number for this (very popular) show. 

 

The (“16 x 20”) piece is printed on high quality photo paper and was originally featured at Gallery 1988’s “oNE Sheet”, which ran from May 21^st, 2022, until June 4^th, 2022.  Please check the gallery’s website for all available works related to 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 and painting.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

Etsy: Stiles of Art

Threadless: mistiles

LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

IG:  stiles1978

TikTok: stiles1978

Pinterest: Michael Stiles

Tumblr:  stiles1978

Twitter: stiles_of_art