How to Design Movie Posters

How to Design Movie Posters In this unique course, Mark Westermoe, the creator of feature film posters for blockbusters like Braveheart, Total Recall, and Home Alone, teaches you how to design a movie poster. This course will teach you how to go from developing ideas for your poster with thumbnail sketches, through preliminary drawings, all the way through to a finished poster. Mark will cover the business side of designing movie posters, including how to get into this rewarding field of work. You will also learn the history of advertising illustration, and learn many insider tricks and finishing techniques.

1. How to Design Movie Posters Part 1: Introduction to Advertising Illustration With Mark Westermoe

In this first lesson, Mark will go over stages of creating a movie poster, building a career in entertainment design, and the main concepts of movie poster composition. He will also show an example of developing a movie poster from a thumbnail sketch.

2. How to Design Movie Posters Part 2: Designing the Key Heads for Your Poster With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, Mark covers the tools and the materials you will use in this course, shows how to design actors’ heads with and without a light box, and reviews top illustrators’ works.

3. How to Design Movie Posters Part 3: Drawing Thumbnail Concept Sketches With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, you will practice developing concepts for movie posters. Mark will talk about borrowing ideas from old masters and developing your own style. You will also see an example of including a designed head in a thumbnail sketch.

4. How to Design Movie Posters Part 4: Organizing and Labeling for Meeting Deadlines With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, you will learn how to properly sort and organize your work materials, such as photo references, head designs, and thumbnail concept sketches. Mark will explain the importance of being organized for meeting deadlines and cover the labeling requirements. He will also introduce a workflow of drawing a montage composition and show the difference between tracing and designing heads and figures.

5. How to Design Movie Posters Part 5: Attaching Sized Heads to Figures With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, Mark demonstrates how to attach designed heads to figures, using a photocopier, scissors, and tape. Then he puts heads and figures under the tracing paper and draws the composition. You will learn how to make characters look natural.

6. How to Design Movie Posters Part 6: Photographing Body Doubles With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, you will learn how to plan and set up a photoshoot of your body doubles. Mark does 3 photographs for 3 different compositions and shows how to size them to 6’x9’ standard format, using a photocopier. Then he sizes actors’ heads the same way and attaches them to body double photos. Now he is ready to start drawing the comp. He takes you through this whole process so you could repeat it yourself and use body doubles in creating your poster.

7. How to Design Movie Posters Part 7: Finished Drawing on Grey Paper With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, Mark shows one of the methods for bringing a movie poster composition to a photographic level. He prints out one of the comps on grey pastel paper and renders it, using color pencils.

8. How to Design Movie Posters Part 8: Finished Drawing on Vellum Paper With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, Mark shows another method for bringing a movie poster composition to a photographic level. He prints out one of the comps on vellum paper and renders it using odorless turpenoid, cotton swabs, a black pencil, and an eraser. He also shows you examples of using this technique.

9. How to Design Movie Posters Part 9: Working with an Airbrush and Acrylic Paint With Mark Westermoe

In this lesson, Mark teaches you to use an airbrush. He talks about different types of airbrushes and how exactly they work. He reviews various materials and additional tools you will need and briefly covers color theory. You will learn how to paint lights and shadows with a paint brush and how to finish the composition with color pencils.

10. How to Design Movie Posters Part 10: Finishing Your Movie Poster With Mark Westermoe

In this last lesson, Mark demonstrates his approach to a hand-painted movie poster finish which is a combination of an airbrush, a wax pencil, acrylic paint, and floetrol. He will give you a sequence of painting and drawing that will lead to a finished poster.