Conan the Destroyer (1984)

As an artist I feel like there are some callings you just can’t ignore, and this would be one of those times.

Two years ago I paid homage to one of my favorite childhood movies, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ (1982).

You can read about that albatross here (it came with a few challenges, and I believe it still reigns supreme for the most time spent on an illustration, in my portfolio). 

 

'Conan the Destroyer' layout design sketch

 It was made originally for Gallery1988’s Crazy 4 Cult XV, which spotlights cult films from the days of yore. It’s really one of the few shows I participate in where I really feel like I have free reign to choose something within my wheelhouse.

Oddly enough, I planned to do the sequel for the gallery’s Crazy 4 Cult XVI, but instead went with the 1985 film ‘Legend’.

So when the opportunity presented itself again this year with Crazy 4 Cult XVII, I coincidentally went back to ‘Conan’, which also had a two year gap between films with the sequel ‘Conan the Destroyer’ being released in 1984.

The thing is, between the two films, I really enjoyed the sequel (‘Destroyer’), more even though the original is really well done (for this genre), and between the two, is definitely more polished­­­­.

 

Thumbnail and final sketch of Thoth-Amon's Crystal Palace on the lake

Even though the directors switched from John Milius to Richard Fleischer, I believe Milius, who also wrote the original screenplay based on Robert E. Howard’s character of ‘Conan’ along with Oliver Stone, consulted with Fleischer during the sequel’s making. The two would also later team-up to film ‘Red Sonja’, which would also co-star Schwarzenegger as ‘Kalidor’, and Sandahl Bergman as the lead villain ‘Queen Gedren’. Sandahl returning to the universe this time as the antagonist, formerly portraying the love interest of ‘Conan’, ‘Valeria’ (from ‘Conan the Barbarian’).

That being said, this film for some reason really reminds me of my childhood. I used to play Dungeons & Dragons when I was an adolescent, and I also collected comic books. I knew who ‘Conan’ was and could recognize him immediately on a cover of any periodical. In fact I still have an oversized ‘Conan’ comic complete with stunning tonal illustrations which managed to inspire me artistically. Since D&D and ‘Conan’ have some similarities, they were often merchandised together explaining my exposure, and that should bring us back to the present.

 

Final sketch of 'Zula' as played by the multi-faceted Grace Jones

 

Having selected my film for the show, I then set about watching the movie to consider how I would layout my piece. I have seen the sequel more times than I would ever care to count, and I’m not in least bit ashamed.

I love it, and every little thing about it.

It’s a complete popcorn flick without the strength of a solid story present in first epic.

Instead we are given what we really want (at least at the time).

Spectacle.

The cast here even reflects the curse of a bigger budget sequel with names like the multitalented Grace Jones as ‘Zula’, or basketball star Wilt Chamberlain as the Captain of the Guard, ‘Bombaata’. We also get newcomer Olivia d’Abo as ‘Princess Jehnna’, Tracey Walter as ‘Malak’ (‘Conan’s’ partner in crime), and Sarah Douglas as ‘Queen Taramis of Shadizaar’. Only Mako Iwamatsu and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles from the prior film as Akiro, ‘the Wizard (of the Mounds)’, and the Cimmerian Conan. Pat Roach also makes another appearance, however in this tale, his role is heavily costumed concealing his appearance. There is also a costumed cameo by none other than André René Roussimoff, or André the Giant as he was more commonly known.

I for one, am here for it.

Not sure if I made that clear.

In my very skewed opinion…this movie is #flawless. 

 

Final sketch of 'Malak' as portrayed by chameleon Tracey Walter

Upon completing my viewing of this masterpiece, I set about creating some sketches for my layout in Procreate to depict what I had envisioned. I eventually came up with a solid concept after a little over four (4) hours of sketching on my iPad (Pro). With my layout solidified, I set to gathering reference shots for the images I was going to be illustrating for my piece. My plan was to do a narrative illustration that tells the story as closely as possible. Looking at some of my other more successful pieces I also determined that a well-defined boundary or framing device always helps my pieces look better. I settled on using the mirror segmentations that are so prevalent in the Thoth-Amon scenes since they might not too jarring depending on how I utilized them.

 

I also decided early on that I wanted some of the segments of the mirror to pass through, overlap, or be covered by, the other various images I was going to be adding to the overall piece. I thought this would give the illustration more depth, and keep the eye moving.

Once I completed the border designs in Adobe Illustrator (spending really about twenty minutes as it was super simple line work over an illustration I already did), I returned to Procreate and dropped it in as a layer making some adjustment with the placement until I was satisfied.

 

I began the piece by first tackling the main man himself, ‘Conan’. I decided for this piece I was going to try something a bit different, but still within comfortable parameters. I have been utilizing the Sketching brushes in Procreate on my iPad (Pro), and practicing with them more as I miss the varying line work you can get with pencil. While Paint give vibrancy to a piece, pencil or linework is what provides me with form, or basically a roadmap as to how I am going to proceed. Similar to my ‘Blade’ piece, I wanted this one to have a more painterly feel as the former was primarily monochromatic with some tonal shifts here and there. I wanted to get away from the doing singular-colored pieces, as I feel I need to start approaching works with multiple colors. My struggle usually is, I plan more so for a striking layout, and when color comes into play, I have a difficult time making decisions about what I was going to need to alter or adjust. For this piece, I was particularly pressed on time, so most of the color choices were made with haste (which overall seems to have worked in the finished product). In terms of the drawing process, like I stated earlier, I used the Sketching 6B brush in Procreate, and spent about eighty-two (82) hours, and twenty five (25) minutes developing all the sketches that were to be painted. The longest sketches were both ‘Taramis’, and the ‘Temple of the Horn’ (the weird looking flaming thing in the bottom half of the illustration), both clocking in around thirteen (13) hours give or take.

Why?

Reference.

 

Final sketch of 'Dagoth, the Dreaming God' statue.

The reference I had wasn’t the best, and I had to develop a composite image for ‘Taramis’, and made some executive decisions with the ‘Temple’ as some details just weren’t discernable.

‘Dagoth’, and ‘Akiro’ were also tough customers, as was ‘Princess Jehnna’ herself (who’s hardly visible in this piece to begin with). I had the biggest crush on Olivia d’Abo after seeing this movie, so I wanted to do her justice in this piece, and while you really can’t see it too well, I could have done a better job capturing her likeness.

For ‘Dagoth’, for the majority of the  film is an inanimate statue, so I figured, using him as a silhouette framing the bottom of the piece would work nicely. There are however not many shots in the film of the statue in its entirety, which resulted in more composite work, and in the end, a lot of guessing. 

Once I completed the sketches, I moved onto rearranging them as PNG files in Adobe Photoshop on my Desktop Mac. Procreate LOVES to add dithering to anything erased or that has a soft edge, and the only work around I have found is to export them as PNG’s and then stitch the whole thing back together.

Also since in Procreate, whenever you adjust the size of linework or a drawing, it loses sharpness.

Not cool.

So, Photoshop it is to avoid this.

I spent about an hour moving images and manipulating them until I was finally satisfied with my layout.

I then saved it as PSD file, and took it back into Procreate to begin the painting process.

 

Final sketch of 'Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds', as played by the late great Mako (Iwamatsu)

Oh and what a process that was.

LOL.

I started first with my background, and given the limited layers in Procreate at certain file sizes or thresholds, I determined it would be best to maximize its use. I decided that both the Crystal Palace setting of ‘Thoth-Amon’, and the landscape shots of the city of ‘Shadizar’ would best be relegated to this layer.

In fact, up until very late in the design, I opted to not provide the image of ‘Shadizar’ simply because there just wasn’t adequate room for it. However, as I progressed with arranging my layout in Photoshop, I determined that even at the size it is, it would still bring something to the piece. It also worked within the layout since I wanted both ‘Taramis’’ glass, and ‘Akiro’s’ fingers to be housed within the diamond symbols on the perimeters of the work.

With ‘Conan’ as a barrier, the color shift worked without being too jarring, and felt more natural.

Next I tackled the ‘Destroyer’ himself.

The trickiest part here was, this is where I was going to start setting the mood or tone of the piece depending on what colors I used, and even what shades. Initially I imported the image I used for reference and decided that due to time constraints, maybe we just let nature decide?

 

Final colored snippet of 'Akiro, the Wizrard of the Mounds', portrayed by the amazing Mako (Iwamatsu)

Yeah, no.

While I did use some of the colors from that palette, I ended up actually manipulating them later in the Hue options under Adjustments as he was reading way too dark for how some of the other parts of the piece were developing.

Eventually what I did was instead of importing the image to get the actual colors, I simply did my best using my own eyes and I think its successful for the most part.

The painting process took me roughly sixty-eight (68) hours, and four (4) minutes, with ‘Akiro’ taking the prize for most difficult, followed by…yes you guessed it, ‘Taramis’! Also ‘Conan’ was a bit labored, most likely because he was the first image I did as his palette isn’t really that complex.

Final (watermarked) 12" x 18", 'Conan the Destroyer' (1984) illustration

I started the illustration on June 13^th, 2023, and completed it on July 25^th, 2023 taking one hundred and fifty-two (152) hours, and nine (9) minutes. Almost a hundred (100) hours less than my ‘Conan the Barbarian’ piece I did two years ago. While this one is a bit different in style, I still see this as an improvement in both speed and skill so…

One point for Gryffindor….?

Although, maybe not, as the piece was due on July 21^st, 2023.

I did reach out to the gallery though a week before it was due because I knew then, that I was not going to make the deadline.

Thankfully my proof came back clean, so I didn’t need to make any adjustments on the image. With that complete, I provided the gallery with my information for the show, and when the prints were ready I shipped them out. 

 

The 12” x 18” image (printed on white pearl linen, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s‘Crazy 4 Cult XVII’, a group show showcasing artworks paying homage to a plethora of cult movies, which opened August 4^th, 2023. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.

 

Mock-up of 12" x 18", 'Conan the Destroyer' (1984)

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.

You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

Etsy: Stiles of Art

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LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

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PSYCHO (1960)

This project was inspired by Gallery1988’s ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, tribute show dedicated to the films of 1915 through 1963. The gallery wanted artists to create original works honoring films from the decades when there really were only a few major studios.

I took a film class in (junior) college, so I have an appreciation for older or classic films, however I would soon discover my taste was rather…discriminating. I looked through the list of films, and to be honest, most of them were just not vibing with me. I’d seen several of them, but as per usual, I also did not want to select an option that was going to be overrepresented so I immediately dismissed several choices. I decided instead to try finding something not pre-approved, which proved ultimately to be futile. Most of the films I watched were not very engaging, so I reached out to the gallery with some selections I did not see on the list that I recalled from the film class which were excellent.  Unfortunately, these films were also ALL foreign. The aspect of this project I completely missed was, that all of the films they listed, and alluded to (in their description of the show), were all American. So that meant I could not do most of the movies I had seen in the course I took. Dismayed, I reluctantly took another look at the list. This time I decided I would pick something possibly more popular, and one I had yet to see. 

  

Digital Pencil Render of the Bates Mansion.

 

I whittled the list down to a few selections, before locking in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 psychological thriller ‘Psycho’. The film primarily stars greats like Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Janet Leigh (Marion Crane), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), Martin Balsam (P.I.), and was nominated for several awards. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to pick a film I had not yet seen, and this still rang true with ‘Psycho’. I was familiar with the overall plot, and twists, but not the details, nor how this cast of characters even ends up together at the fateful ‘Bates Motel’, to begin with. This meant I was going to have to watch the film, which also required I rent it to stream (seriously tho’…the movie is like sixty years old, and it’s not available to watch anywhere for free at this time? I have like a gazillion streaming services!!! WTH!?).

 

I watched the film once, then quickly began trying to come up with an idea about how to layout the poster I was going to be illustrating. I thought it might be interesting to look at art movements that were taking place during the era the film was made. I was fortunate enough to have my pick from Pop Art, Psychedelic Art, Op Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art. Having just finished the film, I recall the opening had lots of segmented lines coming in and out during the credits, which was reminiscent of the Dutch Minimalist artist Piet Mondrian. I looked at Mondrian’s work and in Adobe Illustrator, I attempted to replicate his abstract method of juxtaposing multiple primary-colored squares with thick black lines segmenting them. I determined I could house an illustration in each square I chose to utilize. I know however needed to contend with what I was going to portray in each square, as well as how many I needed to have, and so forth. 

 

Digital Pencil Render of: Shower Scene/Bates Motel (1960) with the Mansion in the background.

I went back to the film, this time destructing the acts, and main plot points that would need to be narratively conveyed to the viewer chronologically. The film’s plot is not entirely complicated but basically there’s theft, murder(s), and a rather complicated family dynamic involved. When it came down to selecting the subject, there were at least two iconic images I had no choice but to include: The Bates Motel, and the Bates Mansion/Psycho House, both of which still stand today on the backlot at Universal Studios in California which you can see on their tram tour. The house is still the original build, the Motel however has been rebuilt. During the amusements park’s Halloween Horror Nights, they allow guests to walk through this portion of the set, and you get really close to the sets.

I digress…

I had decided on depicting six scenes from the film, and with both the Motel, and Mansion taking up two spots, that left with four more. I determined that the best way to portray the images was to start first with the beginning of our story which starts in Phoenix, Arizona, but ends at the Bates Motel in Fairvale, California. I determined that portraying the ‘theft’, alongside the disposing of evidence as necessary to the overall narrative, even if they are slightly arguably red herrings. The final image I knew had to be the infamous shower scene (plus I had a red square to fill, it made sense), which along with the house and hotel, I supposed only really left me with three selections to actually make.

 

One of the (many) cars sinking into the nearby marshes.

With the images in mind, I went back to the film and gathered the necessary reference I was going to need in order to do this project, and also it was a rental so the clock was ticking. With a solid start on resource material, I began first on the arduous task of illustration the Bates Mansion. As the most iconic image of all the ones I selected, I figured it should be the largest in the hierarchy, which also happened to be the blue square. While the Mansion does play a large role in the film, most of the action doesn’t even take place there. The most difficult task was the porch and surrounding foliage around the perimeter of the house. Satisfied with the image, I continued to develop the other images developing each sketch in Procreate on my iPad using the Peppermint Pencil. Most of the illustration’s didn’t take a lot of time except for the Motel.  I had to get more reference online for the details on the façade which proved tricky considering it had been rebuilt since the film was made. I’m a stickler for staying to true to the original, and I wanted to make sure that the Motel sketch looked like the original. There were also some challenges with depicting the vehicles in this piece as well. I had to track down the makes for each of the scenes with the cars, since I could not get clear shots from the film (lots of dark nighttime footage, and the film is also black and white). Marion’s car in the beginning of the film according to the internet is 1957 Ford Sedan, and during my image development, I somehow ended up with reference for a 1957 Ford Skyliner. I’m not sure if this is the car that Marion trades-in for, or has originally, or it this is just a mistake on my part when I was gathering research. The Skyliner is depicted in the bottom yellow panel, with the Sedan (I believe) in the upper smaller yellow panel.  The smaller image was based on reference from the film, so whatever the vehicle type in that scene, it’s accurately depicted. I also had to outsource my reference for the skyline in the bottom panel of Phoenix. I found a postcard from the 1960’s of the city that I used to historically represent an accurate portrayal.

Digital pencil render and tonal paint of cash from Act 1

With the primary sketches done, I edited them in Adobe Photoshop on my desktop, and once I was satisfied with the layout, I transferred the file back to my iPad to begin painting some minor details in Procreate. I naturally started with the Mansion, and worked my way down to the final (or first image), of Marion driving from Phoenix to Fairvale. I decided on leaving the image within it’s relatively primary color scheme, and simply use varying tints and shades instead to imply contrast or dimension within.  Since I had rendered most of the images with the intention of blocking in color, it wasn’t a difficult task, and thankfully didn’t take too long. My only other obstacle was with the shower scene. I originally planned on having the shower running, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how I would do this and make it look ‘right’. I also wanted to allude to what transpires in this scene without giving too much away (not that it isn’t world infamous anyways but still, show not tell, right?).

 

The Bates Motel (1960), and Marion (Janet Leigh), fleeing Phoenix.

Upon completing the painting process, I took the image back into Photoshop, and began editing it. I cleaned up all the edges, and even went into Adobe Illustrator to readjust the Mondrian layout. I also noticed that both the shower, and the Motel scene weren’t exactly strongly contrasting in the piece enough to see some of the finer details. In the shower illustration, there was a complete lack of contrast between the tile, wall, and shower head. The water droplets were also very underwhelming. I ended up creating another layer and added white to the tile area only, then adjusted the opacity until it had a slight contrast as too much looked off. The Motel was just entirely too dark, of course this was when I noticed the file was set to RGB, which would explain the darker look of the image. I immediately changed the format to CMYK and was taken back by how much brighter the image read. I was also a bit irritate at myself for not noticing this error earlier. My guess is that when I imported the AI file it was formatted as RGB, and since I based the file off its import, it probably took its color profile as well.

Oops.

The motel looked great after the profile change, the shower…questionable, but I was going to leave it for now as I had time to get it proofed before the deadline to roll the dice on it. I did however add some highlights to the water droplets on the shower image, and dropped an Overlay on the neon sign in front of the Motel to give it more contrast and a bit of a glow. Satisfied, and exhausted, I sent it off to proof. Thankfully it came back clean, so there was no necessary edits to be made.

I started the piece on January 8^th, 2023, with the initial sketching stages taking me approximately twenty seven (27), and a half hours (29 minutes to be exact) to complete . The painting process began on January 17^th, and lasted roughly Twenty Nine (29), hours and Twenty Three (23) minutes-ish, for a total of Fifty Six (56) hours, and Fifty Two (52) minutes-ish. This is of course not including the time it took me to build the layout in Adobe Illustrator, or the time I spent editing it in Adobe Photoshop, but I’d estimate it was about another six (6) hours at least, so that leaves us around Sixty Two (62) hours or so for this entire piece which I concluded on February 5^th, 2023. A bit longer than the Blade image which is similar in style, interesting. 

 

Final (11" x 17") image tribute image to Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960).

The 11” x 17” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, a group show dedicated to the films celebrating the classics from 1915 to 1963.  The show was originally scheduled to run from April 8^th, 2023, through April 22^nd, 2023 with all remaining works available the following day (April 9^th) at noon. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.*

 

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.

You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.

 

*Apparently the prints sold out and are no longer available.

 

UPDATE:

10/23/23

While going through the archives I discovered the final remaining five (5) prints. I contacted the gallery, and they are now in their possession. If interested in purchasing please check out their website.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

Etsy: Stiles of Art

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LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

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Groundhog Day

 

When I received the prompt from Gallery1988 for their 30^th Anniversary ‘Groundhog Day’ show I almost groaned. I had an issue, as I had already done an illustration inspired by the film, almost a decade ago that has really never seen the light of day outside this blog. My quandary was this: I could simply reuse this image, afterall it was clever, and captured the film for me precisely, OR I could create something new.

 

If you haven’t seen the movie, the concept is what obviously inspired such knock-offs as ‘Happy Death Day’ (which was fantastic, as was the sequel, I’m just saying, know your history kids). With that out of the way, I didn’t want to repeat myself (HA), I set about rewatching the film which I honestly haven’t seen in ages. I collected some reference materials from the viewing, and the internet but nothing was really speaking to me. I then attempted to highlight the actual holiday (which takes a back seat to the plot), but after several sketches, and at least a pot of coffee, I decided to take a different approach.

 

Original broken record concept for the movie based on the prompt 'Repeat'.

I went back to my original design from several years ago I mentioned above, and thought about how I could possibly salvage, or repurpose it. It did feel a little bit like cheating considering this piece was already ‘finished’. I thought about how I could use the surface of the record as a mirror to reflect the images of characters from the film. While this concept was extremely tempting, I knew it would ultimately turn a simplistic image into a jarring cacophony of characters. The plan would be to take the record, and crack it into pieces, using each shard to depict a different actor in the film. I would have place them in accordance with how important they are to our lead man ‘Phil’ (Bill Murray), and his story (which the film centers on).

 

Instead, I took a different approach that was less bold. I decided to use an older file of the illustration I had from a backup. In this version, the record had yet to have been broken apart. This gave me more surface area to work with, and I decided that I could still get my ‘broken record’ message across with a smaller area of damage.  With the extra room, instead of depicting multiple characters from the film, I went with just one, ‘Phil’.

 

Sketch of 'Phil' (Bill Murray) from 'Groundhog Day'.

Now my only obstacle was to find an image of Murray where he really sold me on the character. In the final illustration, Murray’s expression is omitted (due to design, I did draw it), but it was fantastic.  I picked a still from the film in which he had just woken up…again, disheveled and confused, it was perfect.

 

Upon selecting my image, I got working on it at a scale that would fit the record’s surface.  It took me almost seven hours to complete the initial sketch, followed by another thirteen hours digitally inking the image, and ambivalently picking a layout. I had a very challenging time determining how to best place ‘Phil’s’ reflection on the record. Eventually I settled on the fact that his face or expression didn’t matter as both the record’s title, and defects, are enough to relay my intentions.

 

The entire (re)design took me a little over twenty (20) hours, in addition to how ever much time I spent on the original record illustration. The record was made entirely in Corel Painter, with the image of Murray added in Procreate on the iPad. The piece was then taken into Adobe Photoshop before going to print.

 

Final image (10" x 10")

The 10” x 10” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was (re)made for Gallery1988’s ‘Groundhog Day’, a group show dedicated to the beloved film’s 30^th Anniversary.  The show was originally scheduled to run from January 28^th, 2023 through February 11^th, 2023 with all remaining works available the following day at noon. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.

 

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.

You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

Etsy: Stiles of Art

Threadless: mistiles

LinkedIN: Michael Stiles

IG:  stiles1978

TikTok: stiles1978

Pinterest: Michael Stiles

Tumblr:  stiles1978

Twitter: stiles_of_art