Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Spooky Scary!

Hey all!
Just in time for Halloween, this is a new illustration from this past weekend's LA Times. The timing was a little tight--I got the info late Monday and the final was due Friday (with the final to be printed in the Sunday edition), but this was a fun halloween-themed illustration to work on!

The original idea of the article was about how Vampires seem to appeal more to ladies and Zombies to men, so my sketches primarily dealt with the gender division between the monsters, the first in a more graphic way, and the 2nd in a more scene-based way.

They liked the first sketch without changes, which was great, although the suggestion was that the hands could look more like adoring fans, and less, in some areas, like they were trying to grab the figures. So I started on my final, but the article's direction took a turn and replaced Zombies with Werewolves! So my illustration needed to reflect the change as well. :)
Here's the final, with the option of a smooth version and a slightly textured version:


Joey Santos was my LA Times liason & designer of the final page, and he gave great input was was really excited and supportive all the way through. Thanks Joey!
Here's the final layout (lightened up for print):

8 comments:

John Coulter said...

Hi Kali,
The printed piece looked great. And the colors look very close to your final. The roughed up textures really looked good on it too. I love on the evil side the hand with the "devil horns"

So did you do that in illustrator or direct in photoshop?

Kali Ciesemier said...

Sweet! Thanks John, that's good to hear.
I've never been the most adept in Illustrator, so I stick to Photoshop for all my work :)

John Coulter said...

wow, your shapes look so sharp on this one. You must have a steady hand. Do you just block in the color with the paintbrush? then add the detail. Love the limited color look on this one too

Sam Bosma said...

My new boyfriends.

Radstronomical said...

I'm definitely more of a vampire man, myself.

Jeremy Enecio said...

it's a shame they got rid of the zombies cuz i'm definitely a zombie man myself :)
this turned out really awesome kali! really love the textures you've added. they're sublte but they add so much.

Patricio OLiver said...

this illustration needs to be reproduced as a poster!!!!

Frank said...

That looks great in the layout. Good job!