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.
I was commissioned to come up with a suitably dynamic image for this year’s High Jump freestyle diving competition here in the Czech Republic. Much of the artwork I’d seen for similar events had been from photographic sources that focused mostly on side shots so I wanted instead to use an improbable POV to heighten the drama of the dive. Using under-lighting, I was able to bring out an urgency to the face and hands and utilised the natural cliff shapes in the background to force speed and perspective. For the text, I created a style that merged both techno and retro themes, mimicking those racy pulp cover titles of the 50’s. The weight of the title grounds what would be a top heavy composition without it.
The new print of this poster is now available. minus text, from the print section of the BRUTE! blog shop.