This was the first sketch of the poster, rendered in a Pentel Sign Pen. I didn't pencil it first, and some of the wonkiness and cramped placement shows, but the main idea was there, which is what I built upon. I knew I could build and layout the background with more accuracy in Illustrator, so I didn't focus too much on precision. 

I decided pretty early on that this would be very vintage-throwback looking in nature, so I filled-in the initial marker rendering with tonal markers to give a better sense of depth and contrast.

In keeping with the retro-feel, I wanted to render the BLOWOUT title by hand then build it in Illustrator as close as possible. I tried to remain mostly true to my line work in other areas as well, but rearranged some parts, like the robot arms, during the vector-building process. Then, Mars and I decided to scrap this view of the robot for a more dynamic, low angle pose...

Sometimes you need to take reference photos to get the angle you need. This is that photo.

The new angle sketch, pencilled and inked roughly. The basic background elements would remain in tact so they were not focused on in the re-sketch, while the robot would be compeltely rebuit. At this stage we also decided to place in some relatively unaffected hipsters from East Nashville. 

Simple process show of the new sketch overlaid on the exisiting background with parts of the robot being built in magenta outline. My intention in the rebuild, was to remain as true as possible to the forms I had drawn by hand.

This was the last stage before I began adding the Vector textures to the robot, cityscape and foreground. I also began to swap out the location copy font to Mostra in a couple different weights.

The final printed poster, signed by the "cast" of the Mars Variety Show.