They needed a poster for a contest where they reward a local hero. They wanted to include average looking people, holding hands together and the original idea was to have the Helgelandsbridge and Stetind mountain(local landmarks) printed on their sweaters with the Northern Lights in the background.
They mentioned Indiana Jones as style reference, so naturally I looked up some Drew Struzan and took some ideas for a few early roughs. This project had a very quick turnaround, so I used a lot of layers, so I could reuse drawings and move things around easily.
I didn't think putting the landmarks on their sweaters would read clearly, but I did a few versions like that regardless. It's important to always do what the client asks, whether you think it's a good idea or not, because you may not understand their motives entirely. If you have a better idea, show them that in other versions, but always make sure you meet their requirements first. My former professors, Courtney Granner and Bunny Carter, would rake us over the coals anytime someone decided to ignore assignment guidelines, for this reason. Literally. They had a coal pit.
Here is a few of the early roughs (including the color rough):
Again, I had to meet a quick deadline, so I didn't have time to shoot my own reference (or fly to Norway). Instead, I took images off the internet and Frankenstein'd them together the best I could.
With that, I drew a rough line drawing on top and blocked in the colors.
I got a few notes, such as widening the age gap between characters and changing some of them out of the sweaters (which they originally asked for), as well as adding a bit of diversity.
A little this, little that, and alllll done.
When I was already pretty far along, they mentioned they needed a widescreen version as well as a facebook banner. O_O
Thankfully, I'm very anal about keeping organized layers because another former professor, Thomas Esmeralda, said that one day, this would save my life. And it did.
I was able to move some layers, clean up the edges, little slap and tickle, and boom. All done.
Very fun project!
