Vertigo (1958)

I usually get most of my invitationals to participate in shows at one time, but occasionally a gallery will reach out to me with a request, and this was one of those occasions. Much to my surprise Gallery1988 reached out to me regarding my ‘Psycho’ print I did for their ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ show. Apparently, the print sold so well the gallery was commissioning me to design another image based off of the infamous director Alfred Hitchcock’s line of work.

I was shocked, flattered, etc., and immediately accepted the offer. I did however ask what films of his they had in mind, as I was only familiar with a handful of the more popular ones. Even then, I’ve only seen two, maybe three of his films in their entirety, and the others I simply recognize by name. The Gallery responded and sent me a list, of which I picked the one I was intrigued by, and knew the least about: ‘Vertigo’.

 

Final layout design featuring Kim Novak as 'Madeleine Elster' in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' (1958).

 

The film, for those who want a brief spoiler free synopsis, is essentially this: A retired cop suffering from vertigo after a traumatizing incident, is hired by an old friend to follow his heiress wife who is exhibiting strange behavior.

 

I started my process much in the way I always do, by watching the film, although this time, I had to end up buying a collection of Hitchcock’s films, because my rental expired before I had time to finish watching it, and it seemed like a good investment at this point.

SIDEBAR: When I started watching this on Amazon Prime it was in its original format of black and white. When I received my copy, it was colorized. I was NOT happy. I get why this was done, but its appeal is lost on me, and the fact the collection doesn’t have an option to switch OFF the color to its original glory is mystifying.

When I finally finished watching the film, I began to sketch my layout, and think about how I was going to showcase this piece. I did some research again on art movements, like when I created my ‘Psycho’ piece based on the Composition works of Piet Mondrian. This time however I was at a loss to find a similar style that would work with this piece, and not copy my original idea (which I could have done as well). 

 

Reference photo found on internet when search for Optical Art, which offered some inspiration.

I found some interesting art movements, but there were no ‘key’ pieces of work I could find that would make a good template like the ‘Psycho’ piece. Instead, I took inspiration from both the films premise of confusion/disorientation, and that of the movement of OP (Optical Illusion) Art. The more I worked on the piece however the more I discarded the OP Art influence in favor of something with a bit more organic imagery. I like my pieces to be narrative or at least tell the main parts of the story. Much of OP Art is very mechanical making it difficult to incorporate. I did however find one reference photo of a model wearing clothing that blended into the somewhat psychedelic background. I did use this as inspiration when I designed the main portrait of ‘Madeleine Elster’ as played by the multifaceted Kim Novak. 

 

Digital pencil render of the Mission San Juan Bautista as depicted in the film.

 

Naturally I went back to the film, gathered my reference imagery, and set about sketching each image in the same way I did with the ‘Psycho’ piece. I knew I wanted to include: ‘Madeleine’ (as my main focus), Carlotta’s Necklace, The Sequoias, The Golden Gate Bridge, the McKittrick Hotel, The Mission San Juan Bautista, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, and some reference to all the driving that took place in this film (there’s A LOT).

 

Digital pencil render of the 'McKittrick Hotel' from the film.

I then began sketching all the images I needed in Procreate on my iPad Pro, this time at a much larger scale, and then took each one individually into Adobe Photoshop, and rearranged them until I was satisfied with the layout. I then transferred the file back to my iPad and finished painting the image in Procreate. I decided early on that I wanted this piece to remain in a gray scale. I’m not sure why, I just felt like it was the best way to properly represent the image as classically as possible. I wanted it to look like a portrait but also have much more hidden within to look and see. I also figured a bit of (limited) color to the piece who be a nice accent, so added a bit of red to the gems on ‘Carlotta’s’ necklace ‘Madeleine’ is wearing. The necklace I felt was a key element in the film that transcends all parts of the story, and nicely ties the film together despite the confusion.

 

San Francisco's own Golden Gate Bridge as it spans over Fort Point.

Upon completing the painting process I took the image back in Photoshop to make some minor edits or adjustments to anything that wasn’t reading well. I then got the image ready for proofing, which thankfully only took one pass, as the image was legible.

 

The Palace of the Legion of Honor, Seqouias, and Carlotta Valdez's necklace.

I started the piece on August 15^th, 2023 and finished it on October 5^th, 2023. The initial sketching process took me approximately sixty (60) hours, and twenty-two (22) minutes with the painting process taking me an additional seventy-five (75) hours, and five (5) minutes, for a grand total of one hundred and thirty-six hours (136), and fifty-seven (57) minutes (this includes the one and half hours [1:30] spent in Photoshop). 

 

Final 11" x 17" image.

The 11” x 17” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was made by request for Gallery1988, and was given a special release on October X, 2023. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for any remaining inventory.

 

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

Etsy: Stiles of Art

Threadless: mistiles

LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

IG:  stiles1978

TikTok: stiles1978

Pinterest: Michael Stiles

Tumblr:  stiles1978

Twitter: stiles_of_art