Today I bring to you an awesome case study of one of my favourite artists Jason Edmiston and his work on his poster ‘Evil Dead 2′. He gave me the OK to post some of the pictures he has been putting up on Facebook of his process from conception to execution which I found to be interesting and a good lesson in transparencies and screen-printing from a digital standpoint. Anyways let me show you what your here to see!
Step 1 - The first part of his process is of course the pencil art. Drawn from Screen Grabs, Image Searches and a Model shoot. At this stage he works out the details and the anatomy of the figure.
Step 2 - This is his rough colour draft, this is where he sees how the colours will interact with each other, test out transparencies and what will and won’t work colour wise. He is building up the colours like a watercolour artist would.
Step 3 - (Colour 1/8 – Opaque Beige on Cream Paper) – After he has signed off on the colour palette he begins painting each layer in Photoshop, One colour at a time underneath he pencil art. (Note: He is using Multiply on this Photoshop layer). Using a combination of brushes, soft, hard and textured he is able to achieve the same looks as he does with his hand-painted art.
Step 4 - (Colour 2/8 – Opaque Light Blue) – Next colour goes down in Photoshop over top of the beige but underneath the pencil art layer. Again with the variety in brushes to achieve a painted look. Even just with this second colour, the depth is incredible!
Step 5 - (Colour 3/8 – Transparent Dark Blue) – Here is where the image really starts to gain some momentum and really create something special. New colour which means a new layer but for this colour the layer is set to Multiply Mode in order to approximate the look of the transparent inks. He takes advantage of the transparent inks by painting in more depth by building up darker areas with this layer, using transparency. This allows him to get a much fuller colour range instead of just using blocks of colours.
Step 6 - (Colour 4/8 – Transparent Tan Brown) – Over top of the Dark Blue he creates a new layer for the Tan Brown. Set in Multiply Mode again he paints over top of the facial features and other areas that require this colour. Once again his choices in brush strokes and textures are vitally important and create the unique sense of hand-painted qualities.
Step 7 - (Colour 5/8 – Transparent Dark Brown) Next up is the Dark Brown. Really bringing out the branches in the image the dark brown acts the same way as the dark blue does. He is able to paint areas lighter/darker as he needs to without using full on colours due to his use of transparencies! Genius!
Step 8 - (Colour 6/8 – Transparent Yellow) – Again using Multiply Mode for this layer in Photoshop you can see that he is using the colours far beyond how they may normally be used. Getting 4 or 5 yellows out of just 1 by using transparencies.
Step 9 - (Colour 7/8 – Transparent Red) – Injecting the ‘evil’ into the image in my opinion! Looking fantastic at this point. Same principles as the earlier layers.
Step 10 - (Colour 8/8 – Opaque Black) – Here it is, the final colour and it is Opaque Black! He begins this layer by creating it on a Normal Layer Mode (Other layers were on Multiply). The last layer deepens the shading, giving the poster more depth than before and enhances the contrast. Unlike other artists and their methods of trapping, Edmiston does this by using colour fades and softer edges so the final product will look more like his painted artwork.
And there we have it guys! Hope you enjoyed the process of Jason Edmiston’s artwork for ‘Evil Dead 2′. I know I did! And thanks also to Jason himself for allowing me to post this up here! Top guy, willing to share his work which is a valued quality, not expected but of his own accord! Truly appreciated! Check out his website and his Facebook page as well!
