Mondo Gallery: Laurent Durieux's CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

We're here. Tonight is the opening of our new exhibit, IN PROGRESS. The show finished and fully displayed. However, we have one more sneak preview to share before doors open tonight. Today, we have a look at an alternate design for Laurent Durieux's CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. See the art and read some commentary from Laurent below.

Laurent Durieux:

I actually had never seen any of the Universal Monsters movies before as, in Belgium, they are not so much engrained in our movie culture as it is in the U.S., so I came to work on these 5 movie posters with a totally fresh eye. I found them truly moving and beautiful! When I have to come up with a new illustration for a movie poster, as it was the case for the UM show, I always try to take the movie from an angle as different and new as possible, which is not so easy as there is sometimes up to 70 years of iconography behind these classics! I am an illustrator and as such, I’d like to think of myself as a “story teller”. My aim is to be true to the film but also true to my emotions. It’s very hard for me to come up with something I’m happy with if I didn’t feel anything for a movie, I guess it’s like that for most artists right? For instance, I think the reason why my “Creature of the Black Lagoon” poster wasn’t as popular as the 4 other ones is that, there is no emotion or pathos involved, it’s a 2D “graphic concept”…I’m not saying I don’t like the movie or the poster I did, but it somehow touched me less than the other 4 films and I suspect the collectors sensed it and prefer when I try to tell a story instead? Also I don’t think my style suits “witty concept” or “graphic ideas” posters so well the way Olly Moss’s or Jason Munn’s would for instance. I wish It did, sometimes, well c’est la vie… Here are the different stages of elaboration of an image:

1. Quick sketch(es) of idea(s)

2. More refined drawing with addition of colours

3. Preparation of the layout with a collage of all sorts of documentation, screen grabs and drawings. (Zita Johann’s arm comes from a vintage window display mannequin)

4. Inking of the final collage mainly on computer (I work with a Wacom palette) and also the old fashion way (on paper), I scan all the bits and pieces I have and paste them into a coherent whole, hence I rarely have a complete original.

5. Getting the volumes, shadows and light, colours in place with my hatching/counter hatching technique.

6. Finding the right typography and placement although I kind of know from the start where I will place it. My twin brother Jack, also graphic designer, usually handles that part for me.

7. Fine tuning of colours.

IN PROGRESS opens tonight, January 25th, at 7PM at the Mondo Gallery in Austin, TX and will be on display through February 23rd.