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Sunday, February 20, 2011

What IF...

What IF... popular video game concepts had existed as paperback novel adventure series back in the '50s and '60s? I've been intrigued by the illustration styles and the graphic design of that era for some time now. Intrigued enough to want to try my hand at creating some mock vintage paperback covers of my own! Participating in Illustration Friday gave me the perfect opportunity to have some fun exploring the possibilities.

Here's my concept for the Illustration Friday word "Dusty"...

IF.Dusty.LaraCvr.final

... and "Surrender."

IF.Surrender.cvr

I was struggling to get GTA 4 star Nico Bellic to look right at that angle - so I built a model in Corel Poser to help me work up my initial sketch.

NikoBellicSteps

Now I'm working on the word "Reverse" (I know, I know, I'm, like, 3 weeks behind).

I've already got something in mind for the video game I'm going to mock up. I really want it to be a bit of an homage to the great Robert McGinnis' paperback covers...

IF.Reverse.thumbs

... and that means spending some time doing some drawings of gorgeous ladies.

IF.Reverse.girlstudy02

Oh, what a chore! ;^) For reference I used some old girlie magazines for these figure studies - just to - *ahem* - get the right period 'look', of course.

IF.Reverse.girlstudy01

I'm really going to take my time on this one, so check back now and then - I'll be adding more drawings as I work my way through the development of this piece.

* More of my Illustration Friday pictures here.