We caught up with Sam Dunn, a London based illustrator and one half of the most badass cycling duo in town Little Wheels to find out more about her contribution to The Great Guillermo exhibition ahead of opening night on 16th October.
How would you describe your style?
Detailed to a slightly obsessive level.
Which Guillermo Del Toro film have you decided to base your book cover design on and why?
Pan’s Labyrinth. I thought it would fit my style well and I love the overall story and mood of the film.
How much of the film did you watch before getting a clear idea of how you were going to approach this illustration?
I watched the whole thing through with a sketchbook at hand to scribble some ideas down and work on them in more depth once it had finished. It was hard to sketch and watch which I’d usually do as I had to continually read the subtitles since it’s a Spanish film. Once I was happy with the layout I watched over some key parts again and again to get reference screenshots and make sure I was capturing the mood of the film the way I wanted to.
How different was your design process knowing that the final image was going to be interpreted as a screen print?
I’ve worked on a lot of pieces for screen printing, so the process wasn’t too different to what I’m used to, of course it’s a bit tricky with only two colours so I used a lot of black areas in the initial hand drawn stage to make sure there was still enough contrast in the piece where I’d usually shade in with colour in photoshop.
Is this the first time you’ve made work in response to a film?
I’ve done quite a few movie posters of some of my favourite films as an ongoing personal project, including Godzilla, Moonrise Kingdom & Donnie Darko. And of course when working with the great Little White lies on projects for Porco Rosso, Crimson Peak and the Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter / Kill Your Darlings portrait for What I Love About Movies.
Which 3 tools could you not live without?
Pentel brush pen, paper and chocolate.
If you would like to attend the private view please RSVP here: http://thegreatguillermo.splashthat.com/
