Having been in the business of graphic design for the better part of 25 years, it takes a poke from the past to reveal what other course my life might have taken had I stuck to illustration versus Graphic Design. One thing is for sure, I wouldn't be financially where I am today.
As Summer was still in full bloom, I had a call from a man I once illustrated comics for (Jim McPherson of Phantacea Comics), asking if I still had the cover art from one of the series I completed in the 70's. The voice sounded the same, but after 30 years I couldn't fathom how he could still be doing this, other than for love, because he never made a heck of lot of money from the endeavour.
To be fair he always managed to pay his artists, if not huge bucks, a reasonable amount for the work we did. It also helped that I was only 23 years old and didn't require much, other than the staples and of course the rent, which my young partner at the time manged to scrape together each month.
So back to the request from Jim. All my illustrations from those early days lay packaged and hidden from view in our basement, so I told him I'd look and get back to him the next day.
I had every illustration except that one, then remembered an illustrator peer at the time, wanted to purchase it, which I gladly accepted. Over and above staples, a few beers on a Friday evening were always a treat.
Jim was slightly taken aback at my discovery, until I mentioned I could (for a cost, much greater than the original 1970's price) recreate the art on my mac using photoshop and a very course greyscale version of the cover Jim offered as a template.
Three days later, I presented the outcome to applause and was handed a cheque that would have kept both my partner and I in food and staples for a month back in the 70's.
You can review the artwork below, and if anyone wants to buy the original I'm sorry, I can't remember the illustrator peer I sold it too, but should you want a copy of this illustration just give me a call.
No comments:
Post a Comment