Pittsburgh Comicon Posters
A tribute to two of the all-time great cartoonists.
Brief
This was a project for Mark Bender’s Digital Illustration II class at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
The assignment was to illustrate two related portraits using photo and style references.
I chose to illustrate two of my favorite cartoonists, Robert Crumb and Jack Kirby.
The photos I chose as reference are shown above.
Below are style references from cartoonist Michael Cho.
Once I had my references, I started sketching loose thumbnails in order to establish the composition I wanted.
After deciding which composition I liked, I then developed more refined sketches from the thumbnails.
Once the sketches were complete, I brought them into Adobe Illustrator and illustrated them digitally. I also added typography and other elements to the posters.
Finally, I brought the illustrations into Adobe Photoshop where I applied them to an old paper texture to give them a vintage poster feel.
My Robert Crumb illustration was included in the Society of Illustrators 2013 Annual Student Competition catalog, and featured in their annual show in New York City.
In honor of Jack Kirby’s birthday, I added some flair to his portrait in Adobe Photoshop and created a social media post to celebrate.
