New Work: The Unicorn of the Sea

Jones Beach - Limit 30 - $15 + S&H - Click on image to buy! It's time for new Phish! Yep, I have my latest fan art concert poster for Jones Beach up for sale on movingthemerch.com. When first looking at the poster some might ask, "Why Narwhals?" I say, why not Narwhals! They are magical creatures and pretty much the unicorns of the sea. I think that should clear it up.

Seriously though, I usually have a style of illustration or some kind of design inspiration when I go into one of these posters. For me, they are a great way to experiment with different techniques. I try not to repeat myself, so it always stays fresh. If it's not completely obvious, I was heavily influenced by the work of Charley Haprer. That is the artist, not the now dead character from Two And A Half Men.

A sampling of the amazing work of Charley HarperHarper's animal illustrations are well crafted, clever, and yet very simple. I studied as many of his illustrations that I could find on the web, and noticed that he tended to take an animal, most often birds, and break them down into basic shapes. He also used straight and subtle curved lines to help create details like feathers or in some cases motion. He just had a great visual style. So, when approaching the idea of creating Narwhals, I thought WWCHD - What Would Charley Harper Do?

All my aquatic creatures are created from a few basic shapes and are meant to be as simple as possible to harken back to Harper's style. I added a few curved lines to the Narwhals to mimic the pattern you typically see on the back and tails of these majestic mammals. This helped to give them some dimension without over complicating the illustration. I added a few dotted lines to represent waves and a few fish to beef up the ocean theme and finally a show label. The Jones Beach label is actually based on a cool design I found on a 50's dairy bottle top. True story.

There are of course a Phish reference or two hidden in the composition. You may notice 4 black fish in the border pattern around the print. Wink, Wink. All in all, I had a lot of fun putting this print together. Since my Atlantic City print relied on pink and yellows to add punch, I though a mellow blue theme could be a nice change in color.

Hope you like it and be on the look out for more new work soon!