Economic Heavyweight Championship

Recently, I've been teaching my students about "process" and how important it is in the creation of engaging images. I decided I would show them about the process involved with creating the images for the series entitled Economic Heavyweight Championship. I've included a sampling of my favorite images from the series (there are 14 in total) along with some of the reference. It shows how much time and effort some illustrators put into the "front end" of an assignment and to what lengths they will go to produce compelling images with a sense of legitimacy. Even more so, it points out how important it is for an illustrator to have good friends - in this case Johnny T and Alex Hoxha!! They had no idea what I was doing (I'm sure they thought I was crazy) but they trusted me and posed for the reference pictures shown below. I couldn't have done it as well without them or without the assistance of my dad who was integral in helping me to get the best photos.

After compiling the best reference photos, I visited zoos to sketch bears and tore through picture files in order to find great bull/bear images. I watched E.S.P.N Classic in order to get a feel for old black and white boxing matches ala Rocky Marciano (my favorite boxer of all time who went undefeated in his pro career and even better, he was from Massachusetts). After pulling together all of my imagery, I scanned what I had into Photoshop and composited it all together, printed my final reference images and used them in completing the images you see below. My plan for these images is to add a crowd and the look and feel of an old televised boxing match complete with smoky haze and maybe an old T.V. frame. I will probably add an image or two including one that emulates the look and feel of an old promotional poster. The goal ultimately is to create an animatic with dialogue and sound effects. Wish me luck!