What the heck is Spookshow Pinups...

Short answer: A series of 12 illustrations based on classic movie monsters and their sexy counterparts.

Long, boring answer: Spookshow Pinups was my debut line I developed when I first started this particular style. I started doing pinup illustrations but wanted to do a collection that had a common theme as my first series.  I've always been a fan of classic movie monsters and noticed that a majority of the vintage posters featured a damsel in distress. The dames always look terrified by the monsters, in mine I wanted to present them as if it where more of a romantic comedy.

The series consisted of 12 pieces total. The first attempt was "Beauty Killed the Beast" and I was going for kind of a Marilyn Monroe vibe to it...dress blowing up, surprised expression, etc. It also helped set the tone for how the composition would work for the entire series. Color palette, type treatment, illustration style and format. After finishing the first I compiled a list of my favorite monsters and got to work on the rest. The challenges for this series was creating a new color scheme for each piece that not only would work well with the characters but compliment each other if they were displayed together. Another challenge was trying to give each it's own type treatment to coordinate with the illustration. And lastly, to come up with a clever phrase for each.

Process typically consisted of doing some concept sketches of the figures then scanning to build the final illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. All of my type treatments are built on the fly, I find it easier to incorporate the type after the fact. That way I can see if there is a natural pocket in the illustration to fit it into. 

The "album" size was another feature to this set I wanted to incorporate. As a collection, I wanted the buyer to be able to pick and choose their favorite and be able to hang them in a variety of formats; stacked, 1 row of 3, 2 rows of 4, 3 rows of 4, etc.

Well, that's the long and the short of it, hopefully I did not bore you to death with my first ever blog!