Elias
Ink and watercolor on 22″ x 22″ watercolor paper
This was what I first had in mind to do for an Elias painting, but I wasn’t able to make it work on the first attempt and ended up going in a different direction. But after a year, especially a breakthrough year like I just had, this one really clicked.
It’s an homage to TWO different album covers, Elvis Presley’s first album and also The Clash’s London Calling, which was an homage to the Elvis one. In the former, it’s the pink and green letters spelling out the King’s name with him playing guitar. In the latter, it’s again the pink and green, this time with ‘London Calling’ and ‘The Clash’ added in white and now it’s bassist Paul Simonon about to smash his bass.
So you can see how I wanted to make that a trilogy with Elias smashing his guitar over some guy you can’t see. Then I used the typography for ‘Walk With Elias’, because of course! I also opted to make it a little more of a sepia-tone rather than straight black and white, giving it a little more warmth and grit. I love that the Elias character is one that lets me go deep on this kind of approach. I’m an amateur music nerd and spent a good amount of time as a young man staring at album covers, so this is a natural.
And that’s my best crowd shot to date, I think.