Do Horses Swim?

Last night UNCW hosted Tyler Ramsey and Beta Radio in the Burney Center. If you missed it, your loss. It had been a while since i have enjoyed as intimate of a show as was delivered to those who came out. You may know of Tyler Ramsey as he has been touring with Band Of Horses for a spell now. If not I encourage you to stop by your local record store to see if they have a copy.

I, unfortunately, forgot the camera to snap some shots of the show. Fortunately, Millie Holloman was handy with her iPhone to snap some shots of the event. I have to mention again that Tyler was one of the most down to earth musician i have had the pleasure to meet.

Beta Radio cam e out and warmed up the crowd nicely.












Also put some personal projects on hold to make some room for making a poster for the event. There were a few concepts that i bounced around before i had had a chance to listen to Tyler's music. It was his title track, A Long Dream, that stuck with me and helped steer the direction posters. It was a quick and simple idea of and underwater dream. What might that look like?

I wanted it to be a slightly odd portrait of Tyler. Just a hint of juxtaposition in the imagery. If you remember your dreams, you're aware that some things just don't add up. They're off ever so slightly that you don't pick up on it till after your awake. It would be perfectly normal for a guy to walk around the street with goggles and a snorkel in a dream, right? Well it would in mine. Put him underwater and in a button down western style shirt and you start wondering a little bit. Am i in another "Weekend at Burnie's"

Here is the rough sketch of the type. Didn't stray to much from here to the final.

Here is the first color thought. I liked the contrast that i could get but the magenta was to punchy. I wanted to cultivate the underwater color scheme of blues and greens.


Then came this option. I liked the addition of green into the palette, but felt the contrast in the portrait would not survive once over printed. Shift the visual weight to the bottom of the poster and add some air bubbles and i think we're ready to roll.



I ended up going with the call to make the drawing the dark blue and shading in green and over print the "sea" with a light blue.









If you like what you see here, head on over to the etsy store and pick on up. Being this close to the holidays, i have to say it...stocking stuffer.

While i was taking in the show i tried to get some sketching in. I have always wondered how character designers capture people when out sketching in public. I have the hardest time with this. Again, my admiration goes up for all you character designers out there.

Thanks for the visit. Hope you have a tremendous Thanksgiving. May it be filled with laughter and love of those close to your heart.

TTFN

Doc

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