My piece for Hero Complex Gallery's I Am The Law / Life of Crime art show celebrating Carlito's Way, a favorite flick of mine. The art is based on a pivotal scene when Benny Blanco left alive by the former smack kingpin of the streets, Carlito Brigante. As reformed businessman stares down his old self in a seedy red stairwell and lets the young punk from the Bronx live, he unknowingly makes the one decision that will hault his clock as it ticks down to paradise. In the end, he almost gets there, and you want him to so bad that it hurts. That's Carlito's Way. That's Carlito's Journey. He cares about his friends. He loves dancing. Loves to tell off dudes while eatin' steak. He loves Gail. He loves the idea of paradise and leaving everything behind. You want him to so bad. And then you remember that the film started with him on the gournay, so that's where it must end. Carlito's Way, man. Too damned good.

 

The art started as a piece in 2008. It didn't get too far. Included near the bottom are some of the earliest incarnations when I was feeling out what to do with the stairwell image. It sat for six years as other projects came and went, reminding me every once in a while that my work wasn't finished. In prep for the Hero Complex show, it was picked back up again. This time a more graphic approach was taken, clean & rough at the same time. The clock was added to reference Carlito's race against time in his pursuit of paradise, then it was just a matter of playing with elements to see how they interacted with each other. The result is what's below. An 18"x24" print that stands on its own. Isn't a montage (to some poster collector's chagrin). And something that speaks to what I connect most with the film. I'm sure it won't be the last Carlito art I make.

 

BUY IT HERE.

Screenshots and pics of my fully posable Carlito figure were utilized as reference...

Here you can see how screenshots were used as reference as well...

I quite like this draft. The eyeflow works, but I remember at the time not wanting the eye to go directly to the gun/darkest running shadow.

This draft was right before I decided to bring back in the brick wall. The clock/running image was also moved down to create better balance on either side of the stairs along with adding Gail in to the clock.

Below are as far as I got back in 2008. There was an idea of adding characters into every step in the stairs as they led up to Carlito, but that seems a bit too much in hindsight. The American flag was a throwaway concept that was quickly tossed as quick as it was thrown in.

As an added bonus, here's another illustration of mine for an Esquire article I wrote about Carlito's Way's anniversary that you can read here.