Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Blast from the Past #230: Poster for Nuclear Freeze benefit concert *UPDATED 09-27-09*

Back in the 1970's, I was involved with a local branch of the "Nuclear Freeze" movement, an organization whose basic message -- eminently sensible, I thought -- was that there were already enough nuclear weapons on Earth to kill everyone thousands of times over, so why not -- as a first step -- just stop making any more new ones?

We were not well-funded, and were often looking for ways to raise money to continue the work of the group. One of our member suggested having a concert featuring two well-known (at least in our neck of the woods, or so I was told) folk singers, Molly Scott and Court Dorsey. Plans were made, a hall was secured, and I volunteered to do the artwork for the poster, which you see below. (My apologies for the horrible lighting on this image.)



I liked the way the drawing came out, with the nuclear weapon gradually rusting away under the layer of soil, mushrooms, and various plants. I think I even managed to capture the singers' likenesses in an okay fashion.

Sadly, the concert was a total bust, as I recall. I think about thirty people came. If memory serves, we lost money on it. But our hearts were in the right place. -- PL

*UPDATE 09-27-09! While going through some old stuff tonight, I found the following roughs for the Scott-Dorsey benefit concert. The top one is my first REALLY rough thumbnail, and the bottom one is a slightly more detailed rough. -- PL

4 comments:

~ tOkKa said...

-->> "What goes around comes around. "

.. more of the " FOLK LAIRD " art (* lack of a better way to put it ).

I think it's pretty decent !!

Are those book shoppes still open up there ?!

Tyr Germanic said...

no offense,but "concerts with a moral" never work.
cool realistic drawings of the people though.

it makes sense you dont make the people in tmnt look that realistic.
cept your first solo issue.
haha.and that had a nuke in it!

Adam Riches said...

Peter,
I am forever impressed by not just the consistent quality and intricacy of your work but the amount of it that you appear to have produced. I already know firsthand that I basically live with a drawing tool of some kind permanently attached to my hand as an illustrator, but I also suspect that I don't produce anywhere near the amount of work you did on a such a frequent basis.

Do you have any idea on average 1.) How long a piece such as this took you and 2.) How many pieces of this quality you produce(d) on a yearly/monthly/weekly basis?

I don't think a lot of people realize how much time you likely put in to many of your background elements...all the foliage covering the nuke...wow!

I've always been curious how you produce so much without experiencing massive illustrative exhaustion.

PL said...

" Adam Riches said...
Peter,
I am forever impressed by not just the consistent quality and intricacy of your work but the amount of it that you appear to have produced. I already know firsthand that I basically live with a drawing tool of some kind permanently attached to my hand as an illustrator, but I also suspect that I don't produce anywhere near the amount of work you did on a such a frequent basis.

Do you have any idea on average 1.) How long a piece such as this took you and 2.) How many pieces of this quality you produce(d) on a yearly/monthly/weekly basis?"

I can't recall specifically how long, in hours, this one took to draw, but as I probably had to fit other paying work into my schedule when I was working on this, I'd day it probably got done in about a week.

During my most productive years, I may have done something of this level of quality about once every couple of months. Most of my illustrations, before the TMNT came along, were done on for a weekly newspaper supplement, so there was not a lot of time to spend on them.


"I don't think a lot of people realize how much time you likely put in to many of your background elements...all the foliage covering the nuke...wow!

I've always been curious how you produce so much without experiencing massive illustrative exhaustion."

I can only remember once or twice coming close to illustrator burnout back in those days -- for the most part, I had a lot of energy and drive and the desire to draw back then. Sadly, most of that seems to have dissipated, and I rarely draw these days. -- PL