The St. John Catholic Newman Center had formerly hosted a yearly art festival and decided to resurrect the festival for 2012, showcasing Marian-centric works of art in any medium. The committee in charge of planning the festival required designs for a flyer, a postcard, and a newspaper ad.
I wanted the central imagery of the ads to be a Marian work of art in and of itself, in order to better articulate the theme of the festival and convey that any medium, any style, any approach, whether contemporary or modern, was encouraged. So I did a mash-up of Lippi's Madonna and some of Alphonse Mucha's floral motifs to illustrate that.
I left the bottom unfinished, as if the hypothetical artist is currently working on his or her submission.
The image of Mary needed to be simple and streamline. Instead of abundant scrollwork, I drew a single lily and later added a feathery frond vector I had drawn for an earlier iteration.
I further darkened the outer contour lines to evoke a stained glass window and emphasized some marbeling in the colors by painting, blurring, and smudging in Photoshop.
NEWSPAPER AD
POSTCARD
11" x 17" POSTER
