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Hannibal Art Book
An Artistic Celebration of a Modern Television Masterpiece
This is the most recently released officially licensed portrait/illustration that I have produced; despite the fact that I produced this painting almost 2-years ago, as the pandemic was merely beginning.
Our friends at PrintedInBlood have been working with several licensors over the years to provide opportunities to artists looking to work on specific intellectual properties (IP) from some of Hollywoods greatest franchises.
Being a fan of the genre and Mads Mikkelsen, this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I had a few false starts with concepts and ideas to begin the process:
The show is primarily based on the characters and events from the Thomas Harris novels “Red Dragon”, “Hannibal”, and “Hannibal Rising”. It serves as a prequel to the events of the novels and the films they inspired, such as “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Manhunter”.
The premise of the show is that Will Graham is a gifted criminal profiler who has the ability to empathize with both victims and killers, which allows him to understand the motivations behind their actions. He is recruited by Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, to track down a serial killer who is murdering families. Graham turns to Dr. Lecter for help in understanding the mind of the killer, not knowing that Lecter himself is the killer.
Throughout the series, the show explores the complex psychological and emotional relationship between Will and Hannibal, as well as the various murders and criminal investigations they become embroiled in. It also delves into the backstories of other characters from the novels and films such as FBI agents Jack Crawford, Alana Bloom and Beverly Katz, as well as other characters like Francis Dolarhyde and Mason Verger.
This is one of the earlier sketches where I was trying to showcase some of the gorier concepts of the show without getting to graphic, literally, with the content.
As I worked through these earlier concepts, I started to hearken back to my early training in illustration and a brief foray into medical illustration.
That is where I hit upon the concept that I presented for submission to the project and review by the licensor in March of 2021.
Knowing that a portrait of the star of the show would be reviewed with a bit more rigor than a thematic illustration, I endeavored to get as close of a likeness to the star as possible, considering the stylized dissection of his features.
Prints of this piece are still available if you are interested.
If you have an idea you would like to discuss, please send me an email using the form below.
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