Jim Morrison Tribute Print

poster design, illustration, typography

Project

Information

Click for InPrnt Gallery Poster for Sale

The Client

This was a self-commissioned piece, the kind of work I do when a subject deserves more than what already exists. Jim Morrison has been illustrated plenty of times. Most of it plays it safe. This one did not.

The Goal

About the Jim Morrison Tribute Print

The Jim Morrison Tribute Print started as a watercolor illustration I did in 1993 for Celebrity Comics. The brief was Morrison, but the style was entirely my own. I was working in a loose, chaotic pencil line approach, heavily cross-hatched with watercolor washes laid over the top. The goal was to capture what Morrison actually felt like to watch, not just what he looked like. The raw energy, the unpredictability, the theatrical presence that made him unlike anyone else on a stage.

When I returned to it as a poster, I built the Jim Morrison Tribute Print around that original drawing. The Art Nouveau border framing the title, and the ghosted starburst radiating behind him. Every element was chosen to put the viewer back in that space, 1967, the Fillmore, lights bleeding through the dark.

This piece was created as a fine art collectible for serious Doors fans and art collectors who want something with depth behind it.

The Result

The Jim Morrison Tribute Print holds up as both a piece of illustration work and as a collector’s item. The loose linework and watercolor washes give it a quality no digital shortcut produces. It is the kind of piece that looks different the longer you stand in front of it.

For Doors fans, it is a tribute with real craft behind it. For venues, promoters, and musicians looking at my portfolio, it shows what I bring to illustration commissions where the subject matters and the execution has to match. If you want that level of care applied to your project, you know where to find me.