RoboCop (Orion, 1987). Full-Bleed Concept Poster Art (20" X 31").. ...

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RoboCop (Orion, 1987). Full-Bleed Concept Poster Art (20" X 31").
Artist Mike Bryan began his career showing in galleries in Los Angeles and London. His work caught the eye of a record label, which led to him producing many album covers and jacket art for performers such as John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, and Led Zeppelin. Creating pieces in his Photo-Realist style, Bryan's work was a perfect fit for motion picture poster art, including designs for The Player, Platoon, Dawn of Dead, Something Wild, and the iconic RoboCop image presented in this auction. In 1987, the design agency B.D. Fox requested that Bryan create a "comp" (a one-half size "draft") for RoboCop based on only one out-of-focus, black and white image from the Unit Photography. As part of the usual selection process, a number of such comps are submitted before a final choice is made. In this case, however, Bryan was immediately asked to create a full-size version of this concept. Pre-digital age, this was a fairly involved task, which included making a very large film positive likeness of the poster on acetate, etching the acetate to alter and sharpen the image, and then running the acetate through a blueprint machine. The result was a ghosted image on paper that Bryan then drew, airbrushed and painted over. It's easy to see how this design became one of the most famous that Bryan has created over his long career. The paper piece is mounted on illustration board that shows tack holes in the top and bottom, corner bumps, some very faint speckles, and "70%" is written in pencil at the bottom right. The image itself has a small vertical crease in the upper left background. Due to the use of ammonia-sensitive paper, the colors are slightly less vibrant than they were in the 1980s. Heritage is delighted to present not one, but three exceptional works by Bryan in the November Signature Auction. The large size image created for the actual poster was sold by Heritage for over $47,000 earlier this year. Very Fine on Cardstock.

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