For the fifth time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing one of my illustrations included in an artbook from Printed in Blood. These are high quality books, with a hardcover and glossy pages filled with a ton of art that ranges in styles and mediums. My illustration was inspired by the Hannibal Netflix tv show, with attention given to many of the themes and key characters.
Some of the previous Printed Blood books that have included my art are: Ghostbusters and Firefly, which I’ve posted about previously. Horror is also not a genre I have typically had an opportunity to work in, but in 2017 I was invited to work on a horror trading card set from Monsterwax and I’ve worked on a few Walking Dead trading card sets from Topps and Aliens sets from Upper Deck.
The Process of Making my Hannibal Illustration
For my Hannibal Netflix tv show illustration, I used mixed media of designer gouache, oil pencil crayons, and acrylic paint. The background was painted with the acrylics, with an idea of using symmetry in the composition by halving the cow skull in monochromatic blue and red colours, and then continuing this symmetry through the face and the positioning of the figure and his wings.
I felt that using greens on his wings would both allow them to pop a bit from the background and add to the relatively sparse colour palette here. Also, I liked the idea of using an unusual colour for his wings. He’s depicted as somewhat an angel of death but opting not to do the traditional black or white wings I believe added a bit of interest to the composition. Also, by not having the wings black or white, it allows for the body of the figure to stand out a bit more, as there I only used black and white, plus the line work in red pencil. The idea of using just red pencils for the suit’s linework I think added some simplicity to the illustration and made it a bit more striking.
Lastly, the skulls under the bench he is sitting on is an obvious nod to ‘death’ in the series, but I didn’t want it to be centre stage. I liked the idea of having them in the shadows and tucked away, like he’s proud of the death he’s amassed but is cunning in that it’s not left directly in the sunlight.
Buy the Original Hannibal Netflix tv show Illustration or a Print
Contact me to pick up the original illustration I created for the Hannibal artbook or to pickup one of the extremely limited prints (out of 100) I made of my illustration. The prints are 12×18″ and printed on professional quality Cougar card stock paper. To see more artbooks from Printed in Blood, please visit their website! The publisher is run by some fantastic people and they have a lot more amazing books that will look great on your shelves!
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