New Floating Action poster by James Flames on sale details

From James on his newest poster.

Without a doubt, my newest most favoritest local band is Floating Action. they have a brand new self-titled record out on Dr. Dog's label, Park The Van Records. i was pretty stoked to be asked to create a poster for the Record Release Show here in Asheville.

original sketch

i did a bunch of sketches and came up with an idea i thought would work, so i did a couple of illustrations for it and scanned them in and as i started to put it all together i realized it just wasn't cool enough. so i scrapped the idea and started fresh. i developed the above sketch in photoshop, to get an idea of the colors and how they would work. i was limited to two colors, and so i utilized an overlap of the two main colors to create a third color.
i also wanted this to have a definite concept: the band is from an area here called Black Mountain, which is obviously up on a big mountain. i combined that with the fact that traditionally, fresh and new jazz musicians are referred to as "young lions". hence, the mountain lion character. and of course, the fact that he's diving to reach the newly released record is, literally, 'floating action'.



above are the two main pieces i needed to illustrate, and it was just easier to draw them separately, so i can place them and re-size them in photoshop later on, and change it to my heart's content. as is uaually the case, i was constantly trying to capture the looseness, flow and action of the sketch, but incorporate more detail and realism - and allow them all to live harmoniously.

detail shot

the last part i needed to draw was the lettering, which is all hand done. i scanned that in and spent awhile composing the scene and coloring it in. a special touch is the subtle 'smoky' wash around the bubbles to give the effect of refracted light under the water.

2-color screenprint, 13"x20", edition of 130

once again, this was printed by Nick at The Half and Half, and as usual it looks amazing. we went with an edition of 130, and they're 13"x20". they're available for $15 on gigposters.com - i don't have many of these to sell, so get them before it sells out. and do check out this album, it really is pretty incredible. my favorite song is "Marie Claire".

New Poster by James Flames The Broomstars

Titled The Rebel James Flames creates a straight forward gigposter.

From James
this one is another poster for a Local Showcase show at the Orange Peel. as usual, i first went and listened to tunes from each of the bands. i'm already familiar with the Broomstars, cool band that i've seen a few times - they put on a great show - but the other two bands are pretty dope too. i let the tunes play while i sketched, and i came up with two strong ideas - one being a little more abstract and weird, and another being more straightforward and eyecatching. i went with the latter, and started to develop it.


i really wanted the pose to feel right - i wanted the shifting weight in the waist and the motion of the hands to be felt when you look at it. so kendra took a couple of photos while i posed, in my best 'fonzie' pose, and i used it for a reference. i wasn't able to get my body to do the exact things i wanted, but it worked as a starting point and i exagerrated as i drew.


Check out his website here and the posters he is selling here. He had these for sale on gigposters and should be putting them back up. If not just shoot him an email if you want one.

Heads UP New James Flames poster Of Montreal

Personal favorite of mine James Flames has created another kickass poster. This time for the Of Montreal show at the Cats Cradle in North Carolina. He has titled it Peace In/Piece Out.
Details to follow.

Check out his work at www.jamesflames.com

He has posters for sale on his website and at gigposters.com classifieds

His Trail of the Dead poster is a great piece of work be sure to check it out.

Update from James
JAMES - It was my pleasure to get to work on another poster for Of Montreal, a consistantly great band with an amazing live show and a pretty dope new album. This was a fun one to work on - here's how it all went down....

after a few pages of sketching in my sketchbook, and not getting anywhere, i started to re-explore some recent themes that keep coming up in Of Montreal's music. sexuality plays a huge role in the lyrics and the theatrics of the live show, and especially comes across in the characterization of the lead singer's alter-ego "Georgie Fruit" - sort of a David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust kinda thing. Georgie is a cross-dressing African-american who has gone thru multiple sex changes.
so, with that, i did this sketch straight in photoshop. i loved how loose it was and i decided to keep it like that in the final.

the actual illustration was done with a 2-inch brush and some black and red inks, on bristol paper, again retaining the looseness of the sketch. i scanned it in, did the color separations for the screen printing, added the text, and it was pretty much done. once again, it was printed by Nick at The Half and Half, and they did a fantastic job as always. it's a 3-color print, full-bleed, 18"x24", and an edition of only 100. the show was last night and it was really amazing, as always. the stage show just keeps getting better and wilder and bigger and crazier. i do have printes left over, and they're up for sale at the gigposters.com, only $20 - click here. they won't last long.

New James Flames posters on sale

James Flames sent over some pics of 2 new posters he released recently. And one from before Henry Rollins spoken word tour

First one is for King Kahn and the Shrines
"Outta Harm's Way"
3 colors, 20"x26", edition of 75. Signed and numbered by the artist, James Flames.

I really like that one for the colors and the depth you see in the poster. So often gigposters look very one dimensional and flat.

Next is Blitzen Trapper
"Yellow Snow"
One main goal was to avoid using black. a unique goal in this one was to utilize halftone to get the most variety out of one color (in this case blue). the final goal was to continue to feel less 'guilty' using photoshop in the actual composition, instead of just a final step to completion.
2 colors, 20"x26", edition of 75. Signed and numbered by the artist

Read more about how he created them on his blog www.pitilli.blogspot.com

His website is at www.jamesflames.com

Both posters are for sale over at click here > gigposters.com classifieds

All his posters are only $20 shipped. You wont find a better deal for this quality of work at this price or even 3-4 times this price.

Be sure to tell him Inside the Rock Poster Frame sent you

If you have not already, get his Trail of the Dead poster. Its really nice in person.

The Henry Rollins poster is up for sale at GP also size 18x24

He has 7 posters up for sale now over there check them out