ELLIOTT SMITH
11"x17" Offset circa 5/27/00!
The other day would've been Elliott Smith 's 51st birthday.
I did this poster 20 years ago!!! (Crazy, I never thought I’d be writing about it today.) I’d just moved to Los Angeles (from Minneapolis) and was working at a Kinko's when I designed this poster. I lived a few blocks off of Melrose. This was also one of the first color posters I had done. I designed it to be screen printed but had no idea how to get that done. So it was offset printed. Back then, I was still doing flyers for First Avenue in Minneapolis.
I was fortunate to see Elliott Smith perform a few times while I lived in MPLS and LA. I'd also see him hanging out at my favorite French joint The Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, where I'd get coffee and wonder what the heck I was doing as an artist. (I miss those days...sometimes. I was always too scared to talk to him.) Instead, I’d hide behind my sketchbook, sipping my coffee, and try to not be a creep.
I was deeply saddened after hearing of his passing. His music helped me get through some tough times and is a great soundtrack if you ever spend a day in Silverlake, or you're getting over a shitty relationship.
• What was your favorite Elliott Smith song?
My favorites were: "Angeles" "Somebody That I Used To Know", "Miss Misery", and "Everything Means Nothing To Me". Pretty much everything on "EITHER/OR".
• If you keep scrolling you can see the original ink drawing and sketches I made to produce the poster…waaaay back in 2000!!! I’m happy to see an evolution in the way I work.
I didn't have a strategy back then. I kept drawing until something looked good. Not the best practice when you have deadlines but I had to start off somewhere. I remember the only camera I had was a polaroid instant camera. (Cell phone cameras weren't anything as great as they are today.) I posed for the composition. I threw on a button-up shirt and sipped coffee as someone took photos of me. Then I collected as much photo reference of Elliott Smith as I could. (Back then there weren't a lot of great hi-res photos to choose from.) I drew the body first then tried to draw Smith's head on top. (I'm very thankful for photoshop and black and white printers these days!) Then I would scan the sketch, enlarge it to fit the 11x17 format, and print that out. From there I would "lightbox" the sketch onto bristol board. For this one, I worked at 8.5x11. (A practice I use for most of my projects now.) I did a tight pencil drawing and inked it with a big ol' Winsor & Newton Series 7 #2 brush. (I use #0's nowadays.) After that, I scanned the inked drawing and put everything together in Illustrator.
The final piece was an 11x17 print on cardstock. I never feel like I can capture likenesses well but I am surprised that after all these years this one isn't too bad.
**If anyone’s interested - I found a few copies from the original print run.
More info HERE!
