My contribution to 'Film On Canvas' - a book where different illustrators were asked to make film poster in the style of a well known artist. My choice for 'WIthnail and I' was an easy one... British Pop Artist, Peter Blake. In the book I write...
"Peter Blake’s paintings and collages gave 1960s Britain much of its visual identity. His sleeve design for The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’ album became the single most recognisable image that represents that decade’s explosion of creativity. Withnail and I, set in the closing days of 1969, presents us with a glimpse of the damp, mouldy underside… what has been swept under the carpet by nostalgia. It’s hilarious but grim and melancholic - a contrast to Blake’s work - but to my mind he would be the perfect choice of artist to produce a poster for the film.
In many ways the set of Withnail and I’s squalid London flat is already a Blake collage in itself… a mish mash of random postcards, cuttings, posters, archaic objects, furniture and empty bottles. I chose Blake’s ‘On The Balcony’ as the starting point for my piece - the colour palette seemed appropriate for the film and I liked the sense of it being simultaneously indoors and outdoors. I then combined it with similar graphic and typographic elements often used by Blake to bring the whole thing together as a poster."
