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.

 

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