Category Archives: illustration

‘Kunst’,

In support of the Femen/Pussy Riot protestors, I created a suitably forceful chainsaw-wielding amazon for the front cover of the new KMFDM album, ‘Kunst’.

Since their incarceration for various anti-Putin stunts and protests, international support for the women of the movement has grown exponentially, mostly due to their bare-chested style of defiance.

(see Femen cross-felling video here: femen-cross-pussy-riot-930

Facebook have removed the image the band’s page.

Le Accelerator – movie poster

With this recent commission for the forthcoming Le Accelerator, I got to realise one of my earliest creative dreams – to design a kung-fu movie poster. As opposed to aping those bold and furious designs used by the Chinese film industry in the 70s, I instead applied a minimalist technique to create a cleaner and more noir-ish effect, emphasising the impact of a kick through dynamic use of shadows, creases and perspective.

Stay tuned for movie news and release dates release dates.

Early concept design
Click to enlarge

Mike – Breaking Bad

To commemorate the passing of one of the greatest hit men ever to grace the screen, I created this vector illustration of steely ex-cop turned meth dealer muscle, Mike Ehrmantraut, again represssing the urge to blow Walter White’s scheming brains out.

He shall be sorely missed.

Prints of the Breaking Bad character are available from the blog shop.

http://blog.bruteprop.co.uk/?page_id=318&category=1&product_id=122

David Beckham Sportrait

For the second of my sportrait series for online gambling site Buddybet, we decided to run a poll on Facebook to find the world’s most popular footballer. Despite heavy competition, David Beckham came out a clear winner and it is in his honor than I created this illustration depicting the moment before he scored that legendary last minute free-kick against Greece that booked England a place at the 2002 World Cup finals.

To convey the moment of calm before impact, I have created several kinetic thrusts: the rush of the player, the downward swoop of his leg and the imaginary arc of the ball as it blasts its way past the wall and into the back of the net. To further intensify the velocity of the scene, I have drawn Becks as a figurative lightening bolt, poised at the moment of striking its way to earth.

click for full size

Jeremy Lin poster

I was asked by several people why I hadn’t yet created a portrait of basketball wunderkind, Jeremy Lin, so I illustrated this portrait of him while his star was still in the ascendancy. While I originally planned to draw the sportsman in a Chinese Communist propaganda style, the resulting sketches didn’t quite capture his down-to-earth personality nor the messianic zeal with which so many of his fans across the world regard him.

I hope I have done him justice.

The poster is available from the blog shop in either canvas or photo stock.

For delivery charges outside Europe, please contact bruteprop@gmail.com for details.

Scarface (Tony Montana) poster

It’s been almost 20 years since I last created a portrait of Tony Montana (Scarface), surely one of the most iconic characters ever to have blasted their way out of a movie screen.

Since its less-than prestigious reception in 1983, Brian De Palma’s blazing gangster epic has become even more famous than its illustrious genre forebear, The Godfather, and remains one of the most influential (and oft-quoted) films of all-time.

Click to enlarge

RIP Pete Moriarty 1966-2011

Today, I received the tragic news that my old friend Pete Moriarty, animator and artist, has died following a massive heart attack.

I met Pete when he was assigned to me as lead 2D animator on the KMFDM animation, ‘A Drug Against War’.

As soon as I met the guy, I was struck by this gentle giant’s loving approach to his art and those around him. Working tirelessly over the an arduous three-month schedule, Pete produced hundreds of beautifully-rendered pencils and final ink animation cells for the video within the raucous ambience of our sweaty, ink-stained cavern. It was a glorious time of belly laughs, high-fives and  Chicago’s finest pool halls and Pete’s contribution to the camaderie was as big as the man himself.

So, when the call came several years later to do another animation for the band, Pete’s name was my first recommendation.

Budgets being what they were in those days, Pete stayed at my house in Seattle during the production and became one of the family over the following months. Every morning after walking the kids to school, Pete and I would work our way through a pot of almost-black java and a couple of Cuban cigars on the back porch of our house in Queen Anne,  kicking ideas around and absorbing the view over the Puget Sound.

I remember we once bet him he wouldn’t swallow a spoonful of incendiary horseradish sauce someone had given us (but we’d been too pussy to taste). As I watched the children’s awestruck faces as his head turned a violent shade of purple, I knew we had made a true friend.

The last time I saw and worked with Pete was on the PC/Mac game, ZPC: No Flesh Shall Be Spared for which he and fellow Behemoth John Schnepp animated several sequences, some of which can be seen here.

His sister discovered Pete  in the early hours of 23rd September. He had died as he had lived – at his desk.

Farewell, big buddy. Today, I will toast your leaving with the traditional Jameson’s poured into the River Vltava.