Soul Clap & Dance-Off with Joe Bataan

We have reached chapter 4 in the Elsewhere and Soul Clap & Dance-Off saga. Joe Bataan and his crew will be gracing us with their presence for this one on April 21st. Took a little from the Subway Joe and Gypsy Woman album covers as inspiration on this one. Ya know, I spend a good chunk of time trying to get these likenesses and poses down of the performers but, I've really been diggin these line drawings of the dancers in the background. I don't spend a lot of time on them and I like their loose look and feel. I'm always struggling with my need to control all aspects of the image and attempts to create some loose and wonky parts so, these posters always feel like a step in the direction I want to head.

Had to take this one on the road so here we are spread out on one of my mom's sewing tables. Actually fell right into a groove and was pretty productive outside of my comfort zone.

"Please Mr. Postman"

Here we go! Month number 2 of the Soul Clap & Dance-Off residency at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY. Jonathan Toubin got La Luz to headline this month so we decided on using another all-star, all-girl group for this month's poster: The Motown hitmakers, The Marvelettes. Really enjoying drawing all these people bustin' moves in the background and always love working up a good pink/green color combo.

I was moving my studio in the process of finishing up this illustration sooo, things got a little bootleg on the kitchen table. All worked out though in the end.

Jackie Shane and the Soul Clap & Dance-Off

Jonathan Toubin's Soul Clap & Dance-Off is going to be throwing a special holiday extravaganza at Brooklyn Night Bazaar this December and it looks like it's gonna be a doozy of a show. We immediately decided on using 1960's transgender soul singer, Jackie Shane, for this events poster. I recommend reading up on Jackie Shane's life after this and checking out her albums. There's also a great new box set out of her work,  put out by The Numero Group, which you can check out on Spotify, or go out and buy, your choice. 

There's gonna be some guest DJing by Don Bolles and Alix Brown, performances by Breanna Barbara, Surfbort and Animal Show, in addition to your chance to shake it on the dance floor for some cash money. Be sure to scoop up some TICKETS for this show.

Originally thought these stripes would be this kind of cool,  shimmery, curtain-esque thing behind Jackie but, this was a tight deadline and we try to keep the color palette very minimal for these posters so gotta save that for something else.

As you can see from these two images there's a definite change in the look of the poster. As fun as it was to do and definitely an homage to old soul revue posters, we felt there couldn't be a bunch of dudes dominating the poster and I knew I couldn't fit a portrait of every performer on there. This was a moment for me where I was reminded that even when I'm making an illustration, I need to be very aware of who I'm placing in there and who I'm unconsciously ignoring, especially when there are 3 bands performing, all led by women and a female DJ performing.

Shadow Dancing

Whipped up a quick one for Jonathan Toubin's Soul Clap & Dance Off at Baby's All Right in Williamsburg this Saturday the 23rd. Jonathan wanted to let his fabulous shadow dancers get a moment in the spotlight so I did my best James Bond/In like Flint sort of homage for this one. There will also be a 16mm projections from Spencer Bewley going on during the dancing so it was very fitting for the shadow dancers to be featured on this illustration.

Tina Turner for thee Soul Clap & Dance-Off!

Back at it with a new Soul Clap poster. Nothin' like Tina Turner & The Ikettes shakin' a tail feather to let you know this is gonna be a good one. Jonathan Toubin is back at Madison Square Park this summer and he has Ural Thomas & The Pain performing with him this time around. Should be a great night so be sure to get there on July 19th!

I wanted to revisit the look of the James Brown poster that I had done a few years ago for this one. All of the dynamic jagged edges, motion and strong lights and darks have really made people gravitate to that piece. For the sake of grabbing people's attention I felt like a similar vibe would serve this poster well but I do feel like it became its own image in the process rather than a homage or anything along those lines.

Soul Clap Tour Poster

This year's Soul Clap and Dance Off poster output has been a fun adjustment. Last year I was crankin' out one a month, which is totally fun and challenging, but it's been nice to sit with these a little longer and take my time. Now that Jonathan isn't doing the Brooklyn Bowl venue anymore I have been working up posters for bigger events or finding a way to use a poster multiple times, like the one above. Jonathan mentioned he needed to update his tour poster and we really went through some revisions on this one and took our time to find something we really loved. In the end, it's one of my favorite images I've made for him so far, and The Mighty Hannibal works great as a genie. 

These are a small sample of the sketches I worked up for this project. The train seemed like a good idea in the beginning but ended up sort of bland and obvious. I still wanna find something for that dashboard hula girl.

You may notice a slight difference on the bottom of this image from the one on the top. Some people are just too weird for the dance floor.