Concepts, Creation and Dancing Nuns

I love doing design and poster work for bands, it's a great switch from painting, but I hate inking, most of the work I do is as simple as possible, the name of the band and a "one hit" image (see the link pub life sketches for other concepts I've done). I believe band posters/ T's should be as simple as possible, legible from a distance and easy to remember.

A couple of days ago I was chattin' with S.Barber at the Cameron and he was talking about going out on a tour by himself, maybe bringing along another musician but he wanted a name for the solo tour, I immediately started scribbling down names and we settled on "the Reverend Uncle Bastard".  I headed home and started doing some small sketch breakdowns.

The first (top left) looked a little too Vault of Horror to really show what the tour was about. Mr. Barber likes playing Honky Tonk songs and gospel tunes, I moved away (top right) from the horror lettering and got into the classic tattoo look, channeling some ideas about snake handlers, I liked the vibe and will finish this design in time but I feel that the Ed Hardy clothing line has really done a job on Classic Tattoos and has made them look tired and trite (which is a shame as half the work I have is classic styled). I did hit on something with the snake handling and decided to instead do some dancing snake handling nuns.  This made me smile.
so (center) here's the first breakdown awaiting his approval, hopefully this is what will be used as the TShirt and poster. I think it has "cross" appeal and is fun and could be worn by anybody.

Head to the Cameron to see "the Royal Families"
all the best,
A.Shay Hahn
madcraftshoppe@live.com

UPDATE 2:35 pm, Client loves final concept, will proceed with final drawing, will post shirts when printed.