Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Blast from the past

Cover art for Taito video game, "Kiwi Kraze".

Today I received an e-mail asking about buying the original of this illustration for a video game package. Unfortunately I don't have the original, one of the few I don't have. It was commissioned twenty years ago. An interesting sidelight (I hope) is that I was chosen as illustrator for this project based on another piece, pictured below, which I had done for "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine" a few years prior.

While I'm glad to have been considered and chosen for the job (and I knew/know I could pull off such a project), I've always been baffled at how the connection was made from looking at the magazine piece, obviously a moody, low-keyed color, fairly quiet "mystery" thing, to the loud, energetic, cartoon-based cover of the game. There are birds in both examples, I guess.

"The Owl in the Oaks", cover of "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine".

There have been other times when this vision isn't apparent with the decision-makers. Often an artist may have an image of an apple in an illustration portfolio, and be asked straight-faced, "But how do we know you can draw or paint bananas?" I'm glad the people commissioning this illustration weren't so myopic.

2 comments:

Lynne the Pencil said...

This is so dramatic. What an unusual composition and combination of viewpionts. Knock-out!

Ray-Mel Cornelius said...

I hope it's never to late to say thank you, Lynne. I appreciate it.