I recently created a poster for the Bettendorf boys basketball team. It was my first time working with them and they left everything up to me to come up with an idea. They have a new coach this year and I wanted to create something that would show off the fact that it was the beginning of something new without doing something that has been done a million times before.
I was inspired by the image of the soldiers raising the flag of Iwo Jima. I hope that using that image for inspiration will be seen as a tribute to those soldiers and help inspire more people to be interested in and remember those events. While creating the poster I wanted to keep that same dynamic shape that the soldiers had created while raising the flag yet stray from it as much as possible in order to keep that historic image unique.
I started off with a quick sketch on paper. I knew that there was going to be 6 seniors hoisting the hoop into the air and wanted to get a rough idea I was actually going to be able to fit them.
Then I began extracting them from the green screen and placing them in the scene. One problem that I ran into was that when they were holding the basketball hoop they were all at different angles. So I had to do some extra careful positioning in order to get them to fit.
Yes, I actaully have a full sized hoop in my studio! (though it has been set on fire and the backboard shattered for other crazy projects) |
I also tried a lightning sky to see if I wanted a really stormy sky in the background but I felt it distracted too much from the players.
In my final version I felt it needed to be even further simplified so instead of a pile of boards I simply painted a black hill. Fog and a forest of basketball hoops faiding into the distance completed the scene.
Amazing art. I have known many of these young men since they were very young boys and they work so hard, and are so dedicated to Bulldog basketball. I couldn't think of a better way to high light them and the program.
LOVE it!!!!