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The instinct of the cat means the death of a rat. I read Coraline to my daughter a couple of months ago. It was instantly one of our favorite books. We were very excited about the movie. It did not disappoint. It’s very rare to find a movie that so well preserves the spirit of the book. We will be enjoying both the book and the movie again soon.
A bit of a different style for me. What do you think? Photoshop, about an hour (not including time spent sketching out a few ideas), for Illustration Friday. Click it for a better look!
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EDIT (Feb. 21, 2pm): I liked the design and felt it fit well with an old pulp novel sort of feel. I was partly inspired by Spacesick’s wonderful I Can Read Movies series. I designed the book cover and title, using pictures of a button and needle I posterized, then I used the book texture and instructions found here. Try it! It was fun. :)
39 Responses to “Illustration Friday – instinct”
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Great job, Mike!
A very striking image with great color choices and a cool textured background. Love it!
Well I love it!
Oh this is great! very simple and nice illo!
oh its cool, I like the graphic style, reminds me of old movie posters. I’ll have to check the movie out!
Very strong image! Oh, and good to have you back!
really i like it!!! it´s awesome concept!!!
Wonderful and strong – I love the graphic style!
Fantastic strong lines and great contrasting colours! Love it!
Needless to say that the cat wants that Taurine the Rats and Rodents have… So they can have wings like the red bull commercials. :)
Excellent work and style going on here Mike. Love it!
WONDERFUL WORK!!! KUDOS!
Wow! I like the simple colrs of black and red.great!
Fantastic work! Everyone has already said it… great colour combination, bags of graphic impact, lovely stylisation! Love the cover treatment too… very successful. Cannot wait to see the film. Like you I really like spacesick’s cover graphics.
It’s wonderfully dynamic while being really stripped down & simple.
Poor rat, though. :(
And I agree that Coraline was wonderful. I still need to read the book.
Neil Gaiman praised it on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/1238779660
Oooo! Well done!!
Pretty awesome work… and if you haven’t heard Neil seems to like it, he just twittered about it.
Neil himself seems to like it. Said so on Twitter
Such a wonderful, strong image. I’d grab it off the shelves in a second hand store if it popped up.Amazing piece and Neil Gaiman himself is letting people know about it.
That is outstanding.
That’s amazing-lovely period feel, just right, and great design. Beautiful job.
I found this link via a tweet from the author, Neil Gaiman himself. He’s as sharp visually as he with the word on the page(not surprising, or shouldn’t be-but I find too few writers these days are as visual as one would like)…I’ve found more fascinating art around the web lately since following him on Twitter–including yours. Thanks for the inspiration.
Very nice! Really love it, beautiful in its simplicity and wonderfully designed.
J.
(PS, I came here via the twitter link Mr. Gaimen sent out).
Lovely! Lots of checking out after Gaiman tweeted it too! :)
I just discovered this entry thanks to a post from Neil Gaiman. The cat was my favorite character in Coraline. Your image completely fits that particular (or purr-ticular) scene, and I love the book cover as well.
I scrolled back through your Illustration Friday posts for a bit. Wow. What a distinctive and unique style you have, and what beautiful use of color and expression. Kudos to you.
Ooh! Way cool, man! I haven’t seen the movie (or read the book), but it looks fantastic so I know I will eventually. Thanks for the mention too! :D
oh no. my capital letters have disappeared. now my formerly jubilant smiley looks like it’s trying to catch a snowflake on its tongue.
I like the book cover much better than the straight image. It looks really good.
Awesome job Mike! It looks like the real thing.
Awesome and subtly terrifying.
Nice work Mike! It seems senior Gaiman thinks so too: http://twitter.com/neilhimself/statuses/1238779660
Thank you, everyone! Respect for Neil, respect from his fans (I’m one of them), and respect from my fellow artists… my week is made! :)
great work Mike!
and thanks for the tips!
Great work! Simple, elegant and very striking. Can’t wait to see the movie.
[...] However, that one blog didn’t push my to my posting tipping point – I needed a reminder. Earlier today I caught a link from Neil Gaiman for illustrator Mike Baker’s entry for a classic Coraline. [...]
This is excellent work – I love the stylized cat and rat.
Ouch! Such sharp movement and contrast. Very dramatic.
very noir! i like the graphic nature of it. i loved the movie as well! can’t wait to read the book.
i read that neil geiman saw it!! COOOOOOOOOLLL!!!1
i love it daddy!!!