97Bottles.com Poster, or How to Make A WPA-Style Poster
Above is a poster I did for 97bottles.com, a social beer site, which seems like a great idea. Inspired by some great WPA stuff. See the full size here.
I’d thought I’d also show how I got there, just because when I do this type of stuff, I get that questions occasionally.
This is the scan of my hand drawing, after I’ve gone over it with ink. I take it into Photoshop, convert it to a duotone via the Threshhold tool, and then select the black out, and place another layer. Then I delete the background layer, so I just have the line work on Layer 1.
I lay down a new background layer of that light, elementary-school-bathroom green, and apply a reverse gradient, with the Dissolve brush selected of a nice dark green, also on a separate layer. Pretty much everything I do from here on out I do on a separate layer: it creates a lot of organizational hassle, but to me, it’s worth it, to have the total control of having everything of a separate layer provides.
I create the big blocks of color with the straight-lasso tool, which mocks the big blocks of color laid down in silkscreening. Obviously, the blue here is the lowest layer, and so on. I choose a distressed brush, again select the ‘dissolve’ brush type’, and shade upwards in sweep motions, making sure it’s not *too* even, with my stylus.
I apply the small blocks and shading and color in similar ways to the previous step, using the gradient tool to mock the airbrush effect on the WPA posters. Again, the “dissolve” option is my best friend here.
I add a second reverse circular gradient around the top most layer of the image, to give it a nice vigniette. I also cut out the line work from the line layer, that contains the bottles, place them on their own layer, and use the “Color overlay” layer option to apply the light green.
Finally, I lay th type on top, and in a stroke of inspiration, I turned off the line layer for the objects, which alluvasudden made the whole thing sing. I love when stuff like that happens.
And there it is. Hit me with questions.
Nice — I think it’s always interesting to see the process. I also find it compelling that you turn of the line layer at the very end. I do this often in my comix, or illustrations, and find the look to appeal greatly. Esp in comix where it also disappears the text, so all you have it white word balloons. Something for an art show maybe.
I love the palette, and I really like the concept.
I must say, though, that I liked the second to last photo with the lines, before you turned the layer off, a bit better. I think the lines adds a bit of pop, a little definition, etc., to the overall composition, and I like the pour swirls, which are now missing.
Overall, though, great job!
Love the poster, and appreciate the quick photoshop tutorial! My first thought was that I missed the swirls too, but then it wouldn’t have that great WPA style. I’m on board with the arrow