Old Time Radio

I recently completed the promotional poster for the Wild Claw Theater's "Deathscribe" 2011. The "one night only" performance is right around the corner on December 5th. Deathscribe is an extraordinary evening of live performances of original short radio plays, written by horror enthusiasts and professionals from all around the globe. The thrill of watching skilled foley artists creating sound effects live, right in front of you, is truly like no other. With live musical accompaniment, exclusive radio commercials, special guest directors and a celebrity panel to judge the best in the fest, the festival is magical. Imagine "Prairie Home Companion" with horror. Website: http://www.wildclawtheatre.com/index.html
Designer/Artist/Art Director, Charlie Athanas of Wild Claw, asked me to illustrate this years poster. I sketched 6 rough thumbnails for Charlie to look at and then he picked one for me to develop into a tight pencil drawing. I'm skipping some of the process here because the thumbnail looked like the drawing and the drawing resembles the finished painting very closely. The creative process went very smoothly and what you see here is pretty much what Charlie and I discussed. The only addition that I made was dripping red paint along the top of the image.
Detail of pencil study:

Finished art:

Posters will be available at the Mayne Stage Theater in Chicago on the day of the show.

On the board right now is a cover for "Adventures of Philip Marlowe" and I'm listening to "Nightbeat" while I work. The stories keep me entertained and in the mood well into the night. The Marlowe cover is for an upcoming Radio Archives collection. I'm enjoying their superb audio quality. If you need an introduction to Old Time Radio jump over to the Radio Archives website. If you don't know where to begin, try "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" or "Box 13" which was recently released with a brand new cover illustration from me.