Stiles of Art

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Elden Ring (Sketch Cards 5)

Seeing as I had some mild success with Hero Complex Gallery’s ‘Sketch Cards 4’, I decided I’d try my hand at their next installment aptly titled ‘Sketch Cards 5’*. This time however, I was much more prepared…or so I thought.

"Godrick's Great Rune"

"Great Rune of the Unborn"

In my last bungling attempt, I had used all of the 5” x 5” cards leaving me with nothing but the standard 2.5” x 3.5”. I was prepared to overcome this daunting task, but I was really concerned if I had enough space to do really…anything. I’ve seen what people can do with these cards so I know what’s possible, but can I pull it off? Only one way to find out, right?

"Radahn's Great Rune"

"Rykard's Great Rune"

"Morgott's Great Rune"

I began by trying to come up with a theme for my cards. A series, or thread that connected them all to one another, yet still uniquely different. I had just finished watching Amazon’s ‘The Boys’, and I really enjoyed it, so I began coming up with concepts for possible cards. The only problem? Size. What I wanted to do just wasn’t going to work with these tiny @$& cards. Thankfully, inspiration struck in the form of a video game…‘Elden Ring’.

"Mohg's Great Rune"

So I’m a little late to the party on FromSoftware’s ‘Souls’ franchise as they are notoriously punishing games, and I like to play games, but not if they make me throw my controller down in an epic rage quit. I did however receive a copy of their George R.R. Martin & Souls love-child ‘Elden Ring’ as a present. I had been playing the game off and on for several months (I’m a busy person) and noticed that the design work was beautifully elaborate. I can identify when care has been put into design, and this was one of those times. Every item in the inventory comes with an eloquent backstory or haunting description. The ‘Great Runes’ I took particular notice of as each one is part of a shattered larger symbol mysteriously referred to as, the ‘Elden Ring’. Most ‘Great Runes’ have a similar circular shape, varying only in color, and placement of certain intersecting lines (perhaps where they were individually shattered). I felt replicating these symbols would be a less arduous task than my original plan considering the spatial restrictions and began collecting the necessary reference material.

"Malenia's Great Rune"

My biggest challenge here was that most of the content online wasn’t true to color. For instance, the imagery I collected off my own television was more vibrant than anything I could find online. In fact, most of the time the imagine I had from the web was so poor quality that making the structure out of each rune was almost impossible. I even tried more unorthodox methods like posting on reddit, but to no avail. I determined that for me to complete this project I would need to complete this game. That or collect all the ‘Great Runes’ in the game so that I had access to high quality images. When I started the project (in June), I had all but about five of the runes I needed and was confident I could gather the resources I needed before the cards were due (August 31^st, 2022).

"Marika's Seal"

Casting aside the lack of reference, I started the project by painting several of the cards completely black as I would need the contrast. The black would also help in cleaning up any edges or mistakes made during the painting process and trust me there were plenty! Truth be told I wasn’t even sure this was going to work, as I feared it might warp the paper of the cards beyond use. Thankfully that was not the case, although they did warp a bit, they eventually completely flattened as I worked on them overtime.

"Rune Arc"

With the cards primed, I let them cure overnight and then began working on them the following day. I started each ‘Great Rune’ in the same manner, by using white acrylic paint to replicate the design and shape. I bounced back between using a brush, and marker to develop each one, and then proceeded to tighten them up, by cleaning up the edges with black. I wasn’t entirely sure how successful this process was going to be as it was all very new to me, so when I started, I only did four of the ‘Great Runes’. When they turned out successfully, I began recording the process with my iPhone and uploading the timelapse videos to my social media accounts (TikTok/Instagram).

"Radagon's Seal"

With the first step done, I then had to paint over the white base of each ‘Rune’ and replicate their appearance from the game. The first rune I tackled in this manner was ‘Rykard’s Great Rune’. I chose to start with it because it was the most vibrant and colorful of the ‘Runes’ I had reference for at the time. I also figured that if I started with the most complicated one I could determine how do-able this was going to be. I was rusty, but thankfully skilled enough to pull it off convincingly (I hope). With success on the horizon a new hope was rekindled, and I set out replicating the remaining ‘Runes’ in my possession (that is the ones I had acquired thus far in the game). Most of the replications went without event, that is, apart from the ‘Great Mending Rune of the Death-Prince’, winner for longest name, and most spatially challenged of all the runes. Its design is beautifully obnoxious, and I had to reorientate the layout of the card in order to (fail to) accommodate it (yet again).

"Great Mending Rune of the Death-Prince"

"Great Mending Rune of Perfect Order"

"Great Mending Rune of the Fell Curse"

I started these sketch cards on July 26^th, and completed the set on August 28^th, 2022 spending varying amounts of time on each illustration. As stated above, each card was a two-step process, first designed in white, and then rendered in color. Of all the cards I did, the most laborious was definitely ‘Malenia’s Great Rune’, followed by ‘Rykard’s’, or ‘Radagon’s Seal’. The cards were due on August 31^st, 2022, which I narrowly met,

*The show has since been renamed to ‘Mini Masterpieces’ and opened on April 29^th, 2023. All of cards measure in at 2.5” x 3.5”, are one of a kind, and exclusively available at Hero Complex Gallery. Please check the gallery’s website for availability and any other 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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Saturday, August 20, 2022

MRS. DOUBTFIRE

There are certain themes for (gallery) shows that simply allude me, or are really challenging for me to come up with concepts for. Gallery1988’s ‘Fake Gigs’ is one of them. The concept is simple enough, create a poster for a fictitious band, product, show, movie, etc., that is from a film or television series. The issue I always have is picking something that will resonate with an audience and not just me.

I started originally brainstorming of what I could do for this show, and even had a few ideas, many of which pertained to films I have already done work on. I had over twenty concepts a few of which were pretty strong (and may be developed in the future), but ultimately I went with my favorite Robin Williams film, ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’. Truth be told the choice was made last minute, and I can’t even remember what made me think of the movie to begin with. I think (from what I recall), I was having a conversation with a friend and the film came up somehow providing me with the inspiration (and motivation), I needed.

In the 1993 film, Williams plays a talented voice actor whose marriage ends in divorce. Separated from his wife, and three children, ‘Daniel’ (Williams), concocts a scheme to get back into their lives full-time (see the pun…oh wait maybe not if you haven’t seen the movie). With the help of an all-star cast featuring: Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein, Polly Holliday, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, and Mara Wilson, Williams turns in one of his best performances. The film also contains such a great message overall, even if the material itself is a bit risqué by today’s standards.


An image reference I came across on Amazon while looking for inspiration

My concept was simple enough as I was going to create a poster for the children’s show from the film. In order to get started, I needed some inspiration. I began googling several different children’s shows like ‘Sesame Street’, trying to find any television or magazine ads for their telecast. It could provide me with a template of sorts that I could draw from. Eventually I came across a beautiful design that graced the cover of a book based on ‘Mr. Rogers’, the infamous children’s television host. The layout was very simplistic, with Roger’s trademark sweater, and a few accoutrements that were altered cleverly to connect back to the show. Utilizing this design scheme, I created a rough sketch in Procreate for my ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ layout. Next, I needed to watch the film as it had been many years since I had seen it, and my memory was fuzzy in terms of what I could use for the piece. I collected reference as I watched the movie, and then set to work cleaning up my layout. I decided mimicking the sweater vest from the Mr. Rogers image would make for a good background. ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ often wore a sweater over her blouse, along with a broach or string of pearls. The cup also made for a great device as the stereotypically ‘British’ persona drinks a lot of tea. I went with colors for her blouse and sweater directly from the film and settled on a contrasting color for the cup. I also wanted to make sure that this piece was simple, and the color palette was limited. The focal point needed to remain the cup, and the text I was going to be adding later. I achieved this through the contrast, but also by ‘framing’ the cup within the sweater. I did a lot of experimenting with this piece in Procreate using different brushes than I normally do to create the ‘fibers’ in the sweater, and pattern in her blouse. Due to time constraints, I did have to eliminate some of my concept. I had planned on created ‘Kovacs’, ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’s’ cheeky co-host as a miniaturized doll or puppet of sorts that was going to rest on the right side of the mug to balance out the composition. I wasn’t entirely sold on adding him the further I went along with the illustration, primarily because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to depict him, and I realized that he would need a different color palette which would honestly attract too much attention. Instead of agonizing over the design, I simply discarded it. I originally wanted to create a vintage style poster, but much like my ‘Big Fun’ poster for last years ‘Fake Gigs’, I ran out of time, and it’s probably better I didn’t. I’ve only successfully managed to distress a poster for the gallery once with my ‘Life of Brian’ pieces for their (licensed) ‘Monty Python’ tribute show. It’s a technique I’d like to utilize again perhaps on a different piece (or maybe a variant if I have time).

The next step was to take the image back into Adobe Illustrator as a flattened image to overlay the text on. I wanted to mimic the font from the film, but finding the official version was a bust. I then took a screen capture of the movie title into Illustrator and went through the fonts I had until I could find one that was close enough to the desired. I settled on a font I used for my ‘Scream’ project to replicate the title (‘Mrs. Doubtfire’), and Comic Kings for ‘Kovacs’ name. For the standard text (weekday afternoons/disclaimer), I used Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold. The last bit of text I used a custom font I had made a while back from my own handwriting (Stiles Font). The trickiest parts were adjusting the cast shadows I added on parts of the letters and coming up with a slogan that made sense. In the film ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ only repeats a few words or phrases throughout the film that could be utilized, none of which would work for this image. I instead, opted for my own tagline of which I’m moderately satisfied with after playing around with some different phrases. I used colors that were already present within the piece for the typography in order to maintain cohesiveness.

With all the lettering completed I needed to piece the image together in Adobe Photoshop and make some adjustments before sending it off to the printers at SGX. Most of the edits I made were to the color of the blouse, and sweater as they were competing entirely too much. The blouse was too dark, and the sweater was the same color as the vapor & pearls washing out the piece. I ended up desaturating the sweater and lightening her blouse to a paler lavender hue. I also kept the pearls the same color as the vapor in order to bring back in some of the color I had just eliminated. Satisfied with the adjustments I sent the image off to proof and thankfully it didn’t need any adjustments.

I started this piece on July 31^st, 2022, and finished it August 20^th, 2022 spending about twenty six (26) hours in Procreate, and an additional seventeen and a half (17.5) hours in Adobe Illustrator. The base for this image was all designed in Illustrator, brought into Procreate, and then back into Illustrator before briefly receiving its final touches in Adobe Photoshop. The piece was due August 26^th 2022, with the show opening on September 10^th, 2022 at Gallery1988, and running until September 24^th, 2022 as part of their ‘Fake Gigs(3)’ group show. The poster is 11” x 17” and is printed on 14pt paper. The piece is currently only available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

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Thursday, July 28, 2022

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.