Stiles of Art: 2021

Sunday, December 12, 2021

THESE STRANGE THINGS…

December of 2021 was a very busy month, I had three shows plus a convention that I was trying to balance and work a day job. This piece was two of the aforementioned-trio, and part of an exhibition curated by Gallery1988 dedicated to the works of director Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson’s portfolio included a catalog of films that have really captured the human condition. His pictures often leave me very uncomfortable, primarily due to the masterfully crafted tragedy portrayed by his award winning casts. By no easy means, I somehow managed to narrow it down to: ‘Boogie Nights’ & ‘Magnolia’. I attempted to watch a few of Anderson’s other works, but these films simply spoke to me, and I was more familiar with their story having seen them previously. I knew, if anything, ‘Boogie Nights’ was going to be well represented, so instead I opted for the underdog (in my opinion), and pursued ‘Magnolia’. Between the two films, I enjoyed the storyline in ‘Boogie Nights’ more, but ‘Magnolia’ has some weird kind of allure to it that I still can’t comprehend to this day (if you’re thinking: the movie, or his attraction to the film? The answer is both…I can’t explain either).

I began my research process by re-watching the film and gathering what resource material I could this early on. One thing to note about most of Anderson’s projects is he often uses the same ensemble cast, and his stories are complicated with character’s destinies intertwining. Keeping this in mind, I knew illustrating one of his films in a narrative style was going to be challenging. I could have opted to simply depict a character or actor from the film, or really anything associated with it, but I like to capture the soul of a film when I make art inspired by it. Instead, I decided to focus on one aspect of the film that often mystifies watchers, and really doesn’t have much to do with the overall main storyline. It does however serve a purpose, but exactly what is up to the viewer to decide.

What is it you say? It’s what our narrator tells us at the beginning of the film and reiterated in closing by the youthful Stanley: “These strange things happen all the time.” This is of course in reference to the phenomenon, or coincidences described in the prologue about: Greenberry Hill, ‘Delmer Darion’ (a delightful cameo by Patton Oswalt), and ‘Sydney Barringer’. These events are then end-capped by the miraculous raining of amphibians at the closing of the film. I depicted the events as part of the background, using a variety of greens, while also contrasting my negative space by utilizing the white of the paper or background. I’m almost positive this piece’s layout was contributed in part by the wallpaper pattern in ‘Sharp Objects’ (inside the ‘Crellin’ house, it’s green and pink-ish branches). Centrally, I knew I wanted to depict a magnolia flowers inspired by the original 1999 poster (and wallpaper). I had visualized a ‘heartbeat’ monitor for the stem of the magnolia branch, to represent the frailty of humanity which is so delicately portrayed. Since I wasn’t going to be doing any portraits in this piece, I knew I had to draw a parallel between the central image and the film. I decided one way to do this was by creating as many flowers or buds, as there are (main) characters. Much like a branch, the film arcs but also loops back on itself retracing its steps, all ‘stemming’ from the same source. To represent the branch, I gravitated towards colors I typically never use, like oranges and browns. These colors tend to recede in most images but together, combined with the green values, ended up working rather successfully. It was entirely experimental in nature and more abstract than I usually work, but I was up against a looming deadline. The piece was due mid-month (December 19^th, 2021), but the show wasn’t until after the New Year. It was primarily due to the holidays being on the weekend this year (2021), which pushed up the deadline about a week. I’m not the fastest artist, but apparently I work well under pressure.

I started the piece on November 26^th, 2021, first painting in the background and then determining my layout. I didn’t return to finish the piece until December 6^th, 2021, the same day I began exhibiting at a convention, which also happened to be the opening date to another show (’20 Years Later: Movies from 2001’). I did all the structures in the piece, and the bulk of the magnolia flowers at the convention over that weekend, and finishing them on the 11^th. This allowed me to send the final image to proof on 12^th. Thankfully the image was perfect and needed no adjustments, which is a true success. As an artist, the biggest challenge for me is when I am calibrating an image or even selecting color for it. I have a hard time determining if a shade will contrast enough sometimes, so this was a considerably big win. I quickly ordered a set of the final illustration, framed, and delivered the work to the gallery before the due date somehow. Total time on the iPad spent on this project in Procreate was roughly thirty-two (32) hours, and that was primarily spent on the background, layout design, and painting the magnolia flowers. The building structures, trees, and other items were all designed in Adobe Illustrator.

This piece was featured exclusively at Gallery 1988’s “Paul Thomas Anderson Tribute Show”, which ran from January 8^th, 2022, through January 22^nd, 2022. The 12” x 18” image printed on white pearl linen paper courtesy of SGX, was limited to a run of eleven. 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.

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Friday, December 3, 2021

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (2001)

With the holidays closely looming I was hoping things would slow down, as I was busier than I wanted to be, but still grateful for the work. I originally signed up for two conventions (pandemically postponed from May/October respectively now moved to December a week apart), and I had four different upcoming gallery shows, including the one you are reading about here. It was going to be tight, but I had faith in myself.

Having just completed my piece for their ‘Fake Gig Posters (2)’ show, I had another exhibition with Gallery1988 in December dedicated to films from 2001, with very little time between the deadlines. Thankfully, I had narrowed it down to a short list of films from the year including: ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, ‘Amélie’, or ‘Ghost World’. I determined, that out of these films, I don’t recall ever seeing work inspired by ‘Hedwig’, which is a true travesty. The film is a masterpiece, and this is coming from someone who admittedly isn’t very fond of musicals. The music in this film however serves a greater narrative purpose, and that is where actor/director/writer, John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen Trask’s work really shines. It’s as sad as it is hilariously heartwarming with stellar performances by Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Trask, Andrea Martin, and Michael Pitt, to name a few. Also, representing this film was important as the media had left this community mostly ignored during this era, and the film was relatively mainstream (or at least well known enough to have a Broadway show).

I typically approach most illustrations in a way that allows me to tell the narrative visually. This movie was however more difficult to pinpoint visually, especially with the music being so prevalent. After a few watches I determined the best way to house the image was to do so rather abstractly. I’m still not sure it was the best way to present the image, but it was the concept I had in mind. In the film, our protagonist ‘Hedwig’, goes through her own transformation, in connection to our antagonist ‘Tommy Gnosis’ (Pitt). To represent this ‘transformation’, I divided ‘Hedwig’s’ face and utilized the musical lyrics from many of the films songs to fill in the negative space (with moderate success). I also wanted to include some ‘Easter eggs’ alluding to the different characters, or segments in the film that resonated with me. I used different fonts, and played with them a bit for the lyrics, attempting to give the aesthetic of a ‘punk’ style poster, along with a bit of Russian constructivists movement thrown in there as well. Afterall ‘Hedwig’ does have communist roots, sadly, a poke at humor most likely last recognized by Gen X. I’d be surprised if anyone under the age of forty would remember the Berlin Wall, or even the U.S.S.R. for that matter. I’ll pause for the irony of the Ukraine invasion, and then we’ll awkwardly move on.

We good?

Okay, cool. So I started the image around October 28^th, 2021 and settled on a sketch/layout around November 9^th, 2021 with the entire piece taking me to the 16^th, with a due date of the 20^th. Did it happen? Oh, no. No, no, no. No it didn’t. Don’t fret the story has a good ending. You see November was the beginning of a busy month, especially for a print shop like the one I use. Also, with Covid still being an issue, and the questionable supply chain, challenges awaited.

Yay! 🎉🎊🥳

I manage to squeak the image into my printer’s by the 16^th, however, it took two rounds of proofs to correct the image (🤬), and with Thanksgiving being the last full week, I wasn’t able to obtain my final images until the 3^rd of December. The show opened the 4^th. Friday, December 3^rd, 2021 was perhaps one of the longest days I’ve had in some time. I was due to be at the Los Angeles Convention Center by noon, for the first convention (the Los Angeles Comic Con) I had signed up for (postponed by a year?), and I needed to pack the car, get the prints, drop-off said artwork to the gallery, and then go set up at the convention center. Sweet Jesus. I managed but it was hectic, and I had already started working on another piece as of the 26^th (of November), for an upcoming show in the New Year, due on the 18^th of December. It. Was. Crazy. I was so distracted at the convention that I ended up cancelling my next appearance, as I knew it wasn’t going to be lucrative.

Looking back at how rushed I was with this one, I would have liked more time, I see several ways I could present the image, some I think a bit more successfully at least in my imagination. I would like to revisit this piece someday, as unlikely as that is. I feel like I need to get it ‘right’, even though it isn’t a complete miss, as there are many elements here I would retain.

The 11” x 17” piece printed on white pearl linen paper was featured at Gallery 1988’s “20 Years Later: Movies from 2001”, which ran from December 4^th, 2021 until December 18^th, 2021. At this time, the image is exclusively 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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Sunday, November 7, 2021

CHRISTMAS MOURNING

Where do I start with this one? This project was something I had originally intended to do ages ago for a ‘Gremlins’ themed tribute show with Creature Features in Burbank back in 2014. I’m not sure what happened, but the show ended up getting postponed indefinitely, and I shelved this piece with the intention of returning to it one day. This happens a bit more frequently than I think most artists are willing to admit, but sometimes when a project ‘falls through’, it’s a blessing in disguise as it gives you an opportunity to use the concept for another occasion.

That time came almost eight years later when I was invited by Hero Complex Gallery to participate in their “Stay Frosty Friends A Holiday Show”. It was a group show in which artists were asked to create works from pop culture that could also be perceived as ‘holiday’ themed. I quickly recalled my ‘Gremlins’ piece, and decided it was finally the right time to showcase it.

I quickly set to work rewatching the film to collect any reference materials and hopefully provoke some inspiration on how I was going to approach the piece. A primary part of the illustration (‘Kate Beringer’ as played by Phoebe Cates) was already developed in Corel Painter, as was the layout so I was already ahead of the game. I knew I wanted to have the character of Kate central and aloof looking while she was holding ‘Gizmo’. Finding reference was very easy for both prominent characters in the film, as each is independently famous for their own reasons. ‘Gizmo’ for his adorable nature and commercial appeal (move over Garfield), while Cates would live in infamy for roles in previous films, before retiring during the early 1990’s. ‘Kate’s’ portrait was started many years ago, so I had a good base to start with, but eventually I would have to start over in Procreate. Upon finishing my central image of ‘Kate’ I moved onto ‘Gizmo’, selecting my color palette from my reference image*, in order to make sure that the lighting was similar. Having completed both portraits, it was time to tackle the challenge of how to portray my ‘holiday’ connection. (*Procreate has this amazing feature where you can select an image to create a color palette from by importing a photo into the palettes.)

Thankfully, I had an easy fix. In true 1980’s fashion I decided to do a play on the double exposures that were so popular during the era and which seem to be returning in favor by many of today’s modern photographers. Using this method, I wanted to tell the story of ‘Kate’s’ ‘trauma’, which would be incredibly tragic if it weren’t handled so comically in the film. Either that or I have a REALLY sick sense of humor. If you have no idea what I am talking about, watch the movie I refuse to ruin the ‘joke’. It’s produced by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and directed by Joe Dante (‘Small Soliders’/’Salem’/’Eerie Indiana’/’The Burbs’/etc). In a nutshell, ‘Kate’ explains her disdain for Christmas, which her boyfriend ‘Billy Peltzer’ (Zach Galligan), is entirely too distracted to properly absorb as it takes places during the film’s suspenseful final act. I had very little reference for the ‘memory’ I was going to be depicting but eventually I was able to find a proper image online thanks in part to rather obscure blog I came across. They are a gold mine of information about film locations and history in general about film locales. Whoever owns this deserves both restitution and recognition, as it’s an awesome resource. For this to work, I needed a shot of ‘Kate’s’ house, along with a police car or fire engine of some kind, as this is where the tragedy occurs. Having secured a shot of the house (from the blog mentioned above), I still couldn’t locate an authentic looking fire truck so instead I opted to utilize the police car from the film driven by ‘Sheriff Frank’ (Scott Brady). Since the film takes place in the early 1980’s I wanted to make sure I captured the aesthetics correctly, and it would prove to be no easy task. While the film does take place during Christmas, and it is snowing often throughout, I needed this image to ‘tell’ that part of the narrative. If Kate’s memory had been about a different holiday, I don’t think this layout would have worked, as I was able to add both snow, and festive lights to the house in order to convey the time of year. While this portion of the illustration is successful in portraying that information, I’m not sure it fits stylistically, and almost looks off. Part of the reason might be how difficult of a time I had proofing this piece due to the limited color I was using. I did want to keep this specific area rather muted as it was a ‘memory’ so having it fade into the background made sense but I think it still needs more contrasting. Not entirely sure to be honest, but it’s not a major issue, more of a technical aspect given time I’d overcome.

Next, I needed something to ‘house’ the image in and the only thing plausible thing I could come up with were snowflakes. I determined I could also use the flakes to overlap and create a bit of a pattern to offset the design. I had situated my layout in a ‘diamond-shaped’ in order to maximize the amount of space for the portrait of ‘Kate’. The illustration was naturally ‘leaning’ heavy to lower left where our loveable hero ‘Gizmo’ is being held, and I needed something to offset the balance. Thankfully, I used the same background color for ‘Kate’s’ hair and blocked it in with highlights using the blue tones from the snowflakes to outline her profile. I had to get creative with the police officers within the ‘memory’ as there wasn’t any reference I could specifically point to from the film. The ‘memory’ was never shown to the audience, so I had very little context on how to visually depict it. I did however use the uniforms from the film as inspiration, and since the figures themselves were going to be so small they needed to be implied more than anything.

Having completed the image, it was time for proofing which would prove to be a challenge due to the color palette I used, and puzzling issue I was having with Adobe Photoshop. If any of layers were blended into another, it left information on the edges that was picked up and filled in Photoshop. Eventually I realized I would have to collapse any layer that I was blending into which gave me major anxiety. I was using the same color as my background for ‘Kate’s’ hair this did create some issues. While a huge setback, it was also a learning experience. I learned quickly that in order to remedy this in the future I would need to transfer the files between the peripherals after starting in Procreate or else the added information would continue. I’m sure there is an actual term for what the problem is/was (see below), but I am unaware at this time and those contacts I reached out to offered no solution. (As I mentioned in the previous post I would eventually learn that this is referred to as dithering*, and while in the previous piece the problem was minor, here it was a major issue, and the solution above DID NOT fix the problem.)

With one problem down, yet another loomed on the horizon…the contrasting. Getting the contrast right in order to be able to even slightly see the police officers was downright impossible. I however was running out of time and eventually I settled on a set that I was happy with (thank you SGX). My perfectionism would end up costing me so much time that I had to physically deliver the prints to the gallery myself. Things might not have been so hectic had I not been also working on multiple projects at the same time (Hedwig). It was wild to say the least.

From start to finish it took over eight (8) years to complete (I did start it in 2014). However, in reality I didn’t return to the piece until October 18^th, 2021 and finished it on November 7^th, 2021. According to Procreate, I spent approximately, seventy-three (173) hours on this piece from start to finish which is a lot. The lion’s share of that time was cleaning up the edges after my Photoshop fiasco mentioned above. I developed the image primarily in Procreate on my iPad, except for the snowflakes, which were done in Adobe Illustrator. There was also some editing done in Photoshop in terms of contrasting for the proofing process.

The 12” x 12” piece printed on white pearl linen paper was featured during Hero Complex Gallery’s “Stay Frosty Friends A Holiday Show (2021”, which opened November 22^nd, 2021. At this time, the image is exclusively available via the gallery with a limited number of ten available, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.

*I would not actually discovery what this was called, nor how to resolve it until MUCH, MUCH later. In fact I should have written an article on it, and posted it, because I couldn’t find a solution myself which added a lot of unnecessary time onto my piece. For more on the solution check out this post.

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Wednesday, October 13, 2021

BIG FUN: THE MALL MADDNESS TOUR ‘89

Look at me taking yet another opportunity to design something for a gallery show that’s close to my heart. For those not ‘in the know’, I love the late 80’s film ‘Heathers’(written by Daniel Waters, and directed by Michael Lehmann). You can see evidence here of other works (yes works as in plural), dedicated to this macabre movie. Gallery1988 would once again be privy to this piece inspired by the aforementioned film with their show prompt ‘Fake Gigs (2)’.

Jeremy Applegate as 'Peter Dawson' & an unidentified co-star.

The concept for the gallery’s exhibit is loosely based around creating posters or adverts for music, movies, products, and more, based on a fictitious concept from film or television. In this case, I chose to create a concert poster for the band ‘Big Fun’ that is often referred to, rarely seen (at all), and who’s insufferable hit single “Teenage Suicide…Don’t Do It”, is ironically ‘tearing’ up the airwaves. The music group form the film which never existed (although another band has taken the moniker), was actually made up of: Don Dixon, Mitch Easter, Angie Carlson, and Marti Jones. How is that ironic? Watch the film, but be warned it deals with suicide rather light-heartedly, even if none of the deaths could be legitimately counted as such. The film has an interesting message that touches on identity and alienation in society. It also kicks off the nihilism that would become a badge of honor for an entire generation. Or at least that’s my analysis.

One of the many references I curated while designing the layout.

When I saw the prompt for this show, I had a few selections, but quickly whittled it down to this one. Having seen the film multiple times I had a clear idea of the genre of music ‘Big Fun’ performed. As a ‘New Wave’ type band, I began scouring the internet for classic band posters, flyers, etc., that I could use as inspiration or even a template. Eventually I settled on an angled layout utilizing the color scheme from the movie (as the poster is present in a few scenes, but it is beyond blurry), as well as mimicking it’s format. I took some inspiration from the research materials of old authentic posters and included dates along with sponsors. Here I took some liberties, as well as, having to adjust things for copyright reasons (primarily logos).

7-11 inspired teen hang-out 'Snappy Snack Shack'.

In order to add as many ‘Easter Eggs’ as possible to this piece I started first by deciding who would ‘present’ the tour along with associated sponsors. It made sense that ‘Snappy Snack Shack’, would sponsor the tour since ‘Jason Dean AKA J.D.’ (Christian Slater), mentions they were the one consistent thing about moving around the country with his father. They’d be the best candidate to sponsor a tour anyways as they catered to teens to begin with in the movie like a 7-Eleven style convenience store (which is funny because that’s what it was originally supposed to be and is in the musical). Both the ‘Swötch’ (based on the Swiss line ‘Swatch’), and ‘Cornuts’(purposely misspelled), are products consumed by ‘Veronica Sawyer’ (Winona Ryder), and the ‘Heathers’. The ‘ich lüge’ ammunition also plays a considerable role in the film, that I won’t spoil. My final logo design for this was for ‘Ticket Faster’, a knock-off of the very well known, Ticket Master logo.

Digital late 80's personality 'Max Headroom', as played by Matt Frewer.

The last element to include here were the tour dates. This required the most work because I wanted the dates to be meaningful. The movie was originally released in March of 1989, so that’s when the tour takes place, along with the 31^st being the US release date (and the last date on the tour). The first date is our first fatality in the story, and in reality. ‘Heather Chandler’ (Kim Walker), is the first of our ‘Heathers’ to be dethroned in the film and sadly the actress Walker died tragically young on March 6^th, 2001. I decided it was the best way I could honor her and the performance in the film. I doubt anyone will even notice it, but it’s there. She was an amazing talent, and who knows what her career could have been. Regardless, I will always remember her in this film. Some of the other dates were based on the logic of a ‘tour’ and centered around a specific area (Ohio where the film takes place). The location names were either referenced in the movie, or match a character’s name. For instance, the 12^th(of April) is Shannen Doherty’s birthday (she plays ‘Heather Duke’), and the 29^th (of October & August respectively), is both Ryder’s, and Jeremy Applegate’s (‘Peter Dawson’) birthdate. Applegate sadly is no longer with us as well, and it seemed like a nice way to honor both him and Walker. There are others as well, but I think you get the point. Locations were also used as a device, as some of them share a name with a corresponding character (‘Duke’ University, or ‘Sawyer’ Place Mall). Finally, I tried to keep the font style as consistent as possible, sticking to the typography from the film. The only time I deviated was when I had to represent a ‘business logo’.

The middle illustration of the band was a composite of several influences, including 'Max Headroom', as well as some adverts of different models or musician's from that time. I sketched the initial image in Procreate, and then vectored it in Adobe Illustrator, before finishing it up back in Procreate.

Most of this design was done in Adobe Illustrator on my desktop, with the layout and center illustration being completed in Procreate. The center illustration was then taken into Illustrator on the iPad, and vectored there along with some of the logos. The pieces were then all arrange together on my desktop in Illustrator. I was going to distress the poster but realized I would lose too much vital information, so I discarded the idea. I then proofed the image (in one go) and had SGX print my final set for the gallery.

The 11” x 17” piece on 14pt paper, is available exclusively at Gallery 1988, and was featured in their “Fake Gigs (2)” exhibition, which ran from November 5^th, 2021 until November 18^th, 2021. The print was a limited run of 10, so please check the gallery’s website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.