Friday 19 February 2010

Robert Johnson


This was an interesting follow up to the last illustration I did last month about blues legend Robert Johnson. I needed to do it in the same style as it was a continuation of the article. The first attempt really worked, especially the use of the recently found photograph of the man - that the article actually mentions.
However I found out that The Robert Johnson estate charges a high fee to use his image, which ruled that out.
So now we had a problem - I have to illustrate an article about a musician, but we cannot use his image! We countered that problem last month with the brilliant idea of using his shadow on a dusty crossroads - meeting the devil.
However, I was able to replace his image with that of his replica guitar. Just replacing it didn't quite work though, so I had to re structure the whole illustration.
I made more of the envelope, stamp and map - this represented all the traveling he did in his lifetime - and we have the result.
Hopefully the image has the right feel to evoke the history of the blues legend.

1 comment:

Papa Simone said...

Wow Scott! I love this image! Reminds me of Nick Bantock. I make guitars using vintage cigar boxes. I would love to use this image on a guitar. How about a trade? I'll make two guitars, with this image on it and you can have one. Images of my work can be found here https://www.cigarboxnation.com/profile/PapaSimone

I think this would be a great way to celebrate the master's 100th birthday!