The evolution of a promotional poster

[DaveGilbert]

Artist Dan Lee (known for his Monkey Island fanart, amongst other things) has created the "boxart" for both Blackwell Legacy and Blackwell Unbound. These pictures are important because they are used to create every piece of promotional material from desktop wallpaper to the CD labels. His dark and moody painted style has always captured the atmosphere of the characters perfectly, and he has dutifully come forward a third time to develop the promo poster for Convergence.

His work isn't finished yet, but I thought it would be cool to show you the progress thus far, and how the process usually goes.


The first part of the process usually begins with me asking Dan if he's interested, and so far he's said yes each time. Following that, I give him a description of what I had in mind. The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse is a location you will visit in the game, and it's a very visually interesting landmark, so know I wanted that in the picture. I envisioned Rosa and Joey in front of it. Rosa looking in her notebook, and Joey peering at it over her shoulder. With that in mind, I let Dan go to work.



He delivered about 6 rough thumbnail sketches. Some were really good and had some very some visually interesting styles, but I had to rule them out for various reasons. One that I particularly liked had Rosa's eyes peering over the notebook, but it was very important to me that the poster showed the character's faces. I felt that this sketch worked the best in terms of showing the characters and conveying the atmosphere, although we agreed that Joey's "pointing finger pose" didn't really work. Once I chose a thumbnail, Dan rendered the pic in a bit more detail:



Now that I can see the characters more clearly, there were several things I began to notice. Number one, Rosa looked too small and squirrel-like sitting cross-legged like that, and Joey (being more an aloof character) was expressing far too much interest. I suggested that Dan change her pose so that one foot was touching the ground, and that Joey be a bit more "cool" about looking at the notebook. As if to say "I'm interested, but I'm pretending I'm not."

[img width=305 height=440]http://www.davelgil.com/boe/conv/adoc/post3.jpg[/img]

Almost there! I like Rosa's pose much better, as she's not scrunched over anymore. However, I felt that her elbow should be on the other knee since it's kind of unnatural the way she's sitting, and that Joey's eyes should be half-closed.

[img width=330 height=455]http://www.davelgil.com/boe/conv/adoc/post4.jpg[/img]

The final sketch! After a few weeks of back and forth, Dan produced a sketch we both like. Next, is the coloring phase, which Dan is working on currently.

[Steve Ince]

That's cool, Dave. Thanks for sharing.

[DaveGilbert]

Thanks Steve!

[PolloDiablo]

Yes, thanks for sharing. It's great to see how you got from early sketches to the final poster and especially why you asked for specific changes.

[axelkothe]

Yes, very interesting.

[DaveGilbert]

I'm glad you all like it. Dan Lee is the man. He's more than the man. He's the man, all that, and a bag of chips.

[danyboy]

Those are great, can't wait to play the game, keep up the good work!

CU

danyboy

[shae]

Nice.