When I was a kid in high school, not really anyone I knew did art. Well, except for one guy. He had a curly fro that often stayed tucked into a beanie, wire-framed glasses, and a whole lot of knowledge about the art world. That guy was Steve Willey, and he's been one of my best friends for as long as I remember. Steve introduced me to the wild world of posters, and if he hadn't I really honestly don't know where I would be now. I owe a whole lot to him. A whole real lot.
Throughout our careers, Steve and I always toyed around with the idea of doing a collaboration of sorts. We didn't really know how we were gonna do it or what was gonna be in it or anything along those lines, we just knew we wanted to try to put our heads together and come up with something really damn cool. Eventually, Atlas was born.
I think the first sketch of this came back in September of 2017, but it was a long while until any other work was done. Eventually Steve created a rough pencil outline of the full piece, which I then completed finished pencils on. Steve took the 18x24 pencil drawing and then did all of the linework digitally, then passed it back. By this time it was January of 2018 and it just sat on my hard drive for a long time, I sort of just stared at it not really knowing where or how to even start filling it in. It's an odd feeling, putting in work on something that isn't totally yours. Regardless though, Steve and I both pulled our shit together, and I think I speak for the both of us when I say that we're more than happy with Atlas' finished look. Collaborating on the same piece with someone has a bit of a learning curve, but I can for sure say that there's no one besides Steve that I would have wanted to do this with.
Be sure to check out more of Steve's work here!