THE STROKES 11/23/01
11”x17" • Offset Print
Signed & Numbered edition of 300

I’m a few days late…
Holy cow…I did this 19 years ago?! I’m trying to scrub my brain & recall where I was at in my life. Well…it was 2001. I was working at Hustler Magazine & doing gig posters on the side. I was commissioned by the venue 328 performance hall & I think philaarts

Back then, a lot of poster artists had to pay to print the posters that they were “commissioned” to do. I was just starting out & didn’t have much money so I only made 11x17 offsets for the print run. This was never a screen print.

I remember that The Strokes IS THIS IT had just come out. All the cool kids hated on the band for whatever reason. They wrote GREAT songs! They were BIG & I remember trying to get tickets to their show in LA but it sold out in a second. So the idea was to draw a hipster dude begging for tickets. I based the guy off a buddy of mine, Kerry. He was a good dude! But he had the iconic “Silverlake Look”. Ironically, the band was from NYC.

Back then I worked at 11x17 on bristol board. I used a winsor and newton series 7 sable size 2 brush & drphmartins Blackstar India ink. Size 2 feels like a mop to me nowadays. I currently use a size 0.

I wasn’t very confident of my inking back then. So I would use a black prismacolor to soften up the shadows of the leather jacket & for the cardboard sign. A trick I learned from reading ANDREW LOOMIS books. PLEASE check him out. They’ve been reprinted & are affordable. You will learn a lot from them!!!.

Fast forward 19 years & I’m still doing posters. This piece has been reprinted in numerous magazines & books. I could cringe & be embarrassed about this but I’m actually proud. I’m still doing posters & my work has improved a tiny bit.

ALL ORDERS shipping this week!.

The NEW JOKER colorway is up in the shop but no one ever reads this far…