A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. These are quick, rough comps, nothing taken to final key art. For me, this was a difficult brand to sum up in an ad. There is a large cast, but the two brothers featured seem to be the main characters. Reality TV can be difficult to sell in small blurbs so I tried many different areas of focus. I tried to focus on the brothers; the mythos of the buried treasure; the idea that the curse says 7 will die before the secret is revealed and 6 have already died and the infamous "money pit".
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. The basic hero pose with the two brothers using some type of graphic element to imply getting sucked into the pit, or being a part of the pit. I used blended the strong fog into the background for the mystery aspect.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. I threw this one in just to show a sense of humor about the concept, but thematically it doesn't gel with the serious theme of the show.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. This was the first, very rough sketch that I did with the idea of the viewer looking out of the pit. I really just thought that it was a simple concept that could be eye catching if done well. It was thrown around that a photoshoot could be arranged for the right idea so I did not limit myself the the photos available.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. The skeleton hand idea for me was a dramatic way to get people's attention and curiousity going for the show. I tried a little copy to convey that no matter how many attempts, how much money spent and no matter how many lives lost, the money pit still draws people to it with the allure of pirate treasure and the satisfaction of solving an old mystery.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. The skeleton hand concept was good enough for me to clean it up. I had painted the first comp in photoshop so for the next stage I found a stock photo of old hand bones. I never found a good stock photo of the correct pose, so I used warp and liquify to put the hand bones in the pose I wanted. I felt that the hand should look loose and obviously dead but still wrapped up or clinging to the illusive treasure.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. The cracked skull with gold coins inside was a simple "treasure obsession" concept. Like the other concepts where I show the treasure, it was felt that the premise was deceiving in the sense that no treasure had actually been found. I never saw it this literally, to me the concept is about how far these people with go, how obsessed they are with the idea that treasure is down in that hole.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. I wanted this one to be very simple. At the end of Season 1, the big reveal/cliff hangar was that the brothers found a Spanish Doubloon, so instead of showing alot of treasure I just showed the one doubloon in the skeletons hand.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. A further exploration of the idea of the treasure at the bottom of the pit. An interesting way of showing the brothers, getting across the mystery, the pirate treasure etc. The toughest part about the worm's eye view comps is conveying a convincing perspective without the right photos. With more time and the right photoshoot the perspective would have worked but these are just comps to convey an idea.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. With this one I tried to show a couple of other key players from the show, eliminate the problem of needing another photo shoot for perspective and maintain the same themes.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. The following images are all final attempts. I was instructed to hone in on the image of the brothers looking down into the pit, without treasure, resolve the perspective without a photo shoot and add a text treatment for the tagline I was given.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. During a meeting with the client he mentioned something about Frank Miller's Sin City and this image popped into my head. Very simple and graphic but someone mentioned that it looked more like a sonogram thatn a pit so I needed to find a better way to convey the idea of looking out of a loose dirt pit in black and white.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. Trying to resolve the sonogram look and also trying a different layout.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. Same concept as the black and white graphic just done in color.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. Again, color version of the black and white comp.
A+E Networks History Channel The Curse of Oak Island Season 2 Key Art Comps. Time management is always a problem with this type of work. You need to spend enough time to convey the concept, but at the same time, you are still just making a sketch. I started spending more time on the manipulation of the brother on the left
to get his perspective better in line with the brother on the right. I used 3 different bodies, warping and liquifying to get the perspective right without making the man look wrong. I also was asked to add a gold glow at the bottom to hint at treasure and add some color.
