Jakku Sunset Star Wars The Force Awakens by Craig Drake
My favourite mondo artist of film culture, Craig Drake…which you’ll already know I’m a massive fan of his Patrick Nagel ‘Pop Culture’ style of visualisation, has at last entered the realm of Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens with this rendition of the character Rey and her speeder. Rey is played by 23-year-old Daisy Ridley, who is a scavenger and desert rat on the Planet Jakku…although Craig has initially called the artwork Tatooine Sunset, since Jakku was only recently announced as her home planet at Star Wars Celebration.
His recent artwork was also the main official‘visual theme’ for the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim in California, which he also attended signing prints of ‘The Bounty Hunter‘ and ‘The Stormtrooper‘ shown below…both of which are still available at Dark Ink Art.
The Stormtrooper by Craig Drake
The Bounty Hunter by Craig Drake
Craig Drake signing prints at Star Wars Celebration 2015
Craig Drake at Star Wars Celebration
Even the legendary Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch turned up to meet Craig Drake to grab his own personal copy of Proto Fett, which was featured on Milner’s Blog earlier.
Jeremy Bulloch with his Boba Fett artwork by Craig Drake
Part of his Star Wars Celebration ‘Official’ Artwork was also the creation of the ID Badges for the event, some of which I’ve already feature in my Art of Star Wars blog, but this montage shows the full set of characters he created.
Star Wars Celebration ID Bages by Craig Drake
He’s also recently dabbled into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the rendition of Black Widow for the Avengers: Age of Ultron exhibition at the Hero Complex Gallery.
Black Widow Mondo Art by Craig Drake Avengers Age of Ultron
What’s next for Craig!…More Force Awakens mondo art I hope, especially his Solo Show II at Hero Complex Gallery, on 2020 South Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on the 22 May 2015…watch this space for a Milner’s Blog report on the event.
Craig Drake is a name synonymous with MilnersBlog, as I’m such a massive fan of his Patrick Nagel ‘Pop Culture’ style of visualisation, although now its about time we lay down any reference to his work being any homage to the late Nagel, and instead embrace him for the talented awakening artist he has now become in forging his own palette of Geekologie inspired art, which firmly embraces visual film culture, instead of the pop culture style which Patrick Nagel presented.
Craig Drake Solo Show
Craig Drake Solo Show
Craig Drake Solo Show
He recently presented a well deserved Solo Art Show at the Hero Complex Gallery in Los Angeles, and I’ll admit the show looked like it was on another level…as you can see in the pictures below, Drake showcased a huge body of work of iconic film culture heroes! He even saved four special works of art until the end of the show, the best space ship in film culture in my opinion, the “Millennium Falcon” plus a few new additions to his film culture palette with Lucas/Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and also The Hobbit with a the beautiful dragon Smaug and the graceful Gandalf the White which was screen printed on a brushed aluminium.
Millennium Falcon by Craig Drake
Ygritte Game of Thrones
DieHard Bruce McClane
Indy by Craig Drake
Snake Variant
Han Solo Mega Variant
Snake
Spike Blue
Hanzo’d First Edition By Craig Drake
Spike Red
Gandalf on Brushed Aluminium
Smaug from The Hobbit
Ghost in the Shell
Han Solo by Craig Drake
McClane on Silver
Lee
Bruce Lee
Solo and Lando Star Wars Celebration VI
Elektra
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Vasquez by Craig Drake
Buffy on Wood
Gandalf by Craig Drake
Michonne The Walking Dead
Portal 2
carrie fisher princess leia by craig drake
In an interview with the Hero Complex Gallery he gave a rare insight into his creative process.
Craig Drake’s Creative Process
Craig Drake has hit the ground running with Hero Complex Gallery! For our first show, Weapon of Choice, he created 3 stunning pieces: “MacReady” from The Thing, and two versions of “Hanzo’d”, featuring a sexy close-up of art inspired by the character O-Ren Ishiifrom Kill Bill. His work has a style that is reminiscent of the celebrated 80’s artist, Patrick Nagel.
Craig hails from the chilly suburbs north of 8 Mile Road in the Detroit, Michigan area. Determined to be an artist, he studied at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. In 1998, Craig moved to San Francisco and worked for several years doing freelance design and animation for companies such as Adobe and EA(Electronic Arts). In 2006, he transitioned to Lucasfilm where he created his first Nagel homage of Princess Leia. This piece was then printed as a signed, limited edition poster.
In Craig’s own words, “Like a lot of Star Wars fans, having grown up in the ’80s, I was exposed to some amazing signature pop culture visuals. Truthfully, [Nagel’s] style really annoyed me as a kid, but as time went on I began rediscovering his work — his brilliantly minimalist yet bold vision of beautiful, strong women is what inspired me to illustrate Princess Leia.” From the original Leia poster, a line of five other Nagel-inspired Star Wars character pieces were spawned.
Since then, Craig’s popularity as a world-class artist has exploded! Last year alone, Craig produced numerous pieces showcasing his brilliant style featuring beloved characters from movies such as Blade Runner, The Bride of Frankenstein, Metropolis, BlackSwan and Escape From New York, just to name a few. With his clean lines and stylized take on portraits of pop culture icons, it’s no wonder why fans are clamouring to get a Drake on their walls!
When I asked Craig to breakdown his creative process, he had this to say, “First I start with rough pencil sketches to block in shapes. At this stage, not much reference is used to keep the original composition vision pure.
From there I might make a tightened pencil. Then hi-res images are gathered to soak in the subject’s details. Second stage is the drawing the final vector itself. Using Adobe Illustrator [and] using my trusty Wacom set up, this process takes anywhere from 1 to 2 days. Best part is this Illustrator master is print ready after a few technical mods to make separations for silkscreen posters. Third stage is painting. Which can take up to 5 days for larger pieces like R.J. MacReady.
Since the master drawing is complete digitally, I then use it as an exact guide and draw the image to scale on illustration board. After that I use gouache paint to bring it to life. I love engineering in small variances between the digital composition and the one of a kind painting. Even collectors have picked up and geeked out on these details, which makes me very happy.”
Since the show he’s forged ahead producing countless more stunning pieces of Mondo Art, his latest was for the organisers of Star Wars Celebration VII, the travelling confab that celebrates all things connected to George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away, which returns to Craig’s home state of California at the Anaheim Convention Centre from the 16th-19th of April 2015.
Star Wars Celebration Anaheim Poster 2015
Craig Drake Star Wars Celebration 2015 Keyart Tall
I wonder if he’ll be producing a calendar like he did for Star Wars Celebration VI with some new artwork for J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” before the 2015 release date… Fingers crossed
Star Wars Celebration VI Calendar Female Jedi
Star Wars Celebration VI Calendar
A brief selection of his work he’s done since the Solo Art Show… he’s a busy man 🙂
Tech Noir Poster
AP Print Drop Star Wars
Roy Batty Blade Runner
Raiders of the Ark
Princess Mononoke Portrait
Nouel I by Craig Drake
Nouel II by Craig Drake
Nouel III
Nouel IV
Postcards by Craig Drake
PREDATOR Mondo
Roy Batty Variant BladeRunner
Princess Mononoke
Princess Mononoke Detail
Jen Yu
Harley Quin Mondo
Catwoman
Craig Drake AP Print Drop
Terminator by Craig Drake
Princess Mononoke on Bamboo
36th Chamber
Finally a rare find, some Mondo Art he did for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus which was sadly never used.
Something sadly missed from my 80’s youth is the large and beautifully canvas of ‘album cover’ artwork, such a long-lost platform for artist of today, and at that time the king of the ‘Original’ Mondo style of art was Patrick Nagel who was synonymous for his unholy union with Duran Duran and their cover artwork, most famous of all Rio. I always liked his unique vision of the contemporary woman coupled with his style of handling colour with quite a rare originality and freedom in which he continually simplified his designs to great effect. Continue reading The Master and the Apprentice→
