This was a very fun piece I was asked to draw by Joshua Mims (for whom I'd designed the poster for The Five Santas) in December 2017. He basically told me to draw a poster featuring dinosaurs that shot lasers from their eyes, and from there on he gave me full reign to do as I pleased. The result was this poster that draws heavily from the covers of pulp magazines and sci-fi comics from the 50's and 70's.

The idea came up in a conversation with Joshua, as a joke. He found it so funny that he asked me to make a poster out of it.
I went for a style heavily inspired by the pulp magazines and sci-fi comics from the 50's, 60's and 70's, in which this absurdly fantastical idea wouldn't have felt entirely out of place.

For this artwork, I used a Wacom Intuos tablet and Manga Studio and Photoshop as softwares. Since there weren't any corrections asked, the process was fairly brief:
- I started with a quick sketch that reflected the idea and design I was aiming for. Notice how in the original idea the dinosaurs had ray guns, which I ended up discarding cause they felt like overkill.
- After the idea was approved, I started by doing the linework.
- Then I went for the colouring, which I did by using three layers of halftone dots: in the first one, I laid down the base colours. Then, another layer gave them a different hue and "integrated" the different colours to the scene. And finally, a layer for lights and shadows.
- Lastly, I added a texture layer (so as to make it look as if this was a priting on an old, yellowish piece of paper) as well as the lettering.

Luckily, people have responded well to the absurdity of the illustration, and best of all, Joshua liked it so much that he didn't ask for any changes!
Other than that, I've learnt a fun new technique to work with with halftone patterns, that most definitely isn't quite like Ben-Day dots, but is a good, faster replacement to achieve a similar "feel" for the illustration.

Francisco Hnilo

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992.
From 2011 to mid-2014 I studied Film direction at the Universidad del Cine (FUC) in Buenos Aires. Thus, I have taken part in several short films, in roles ranging from Director to Art Director. In 2017, the short film "Sort your Life out" which I co-directed with Federico Loguancio, won the main prize at the Buenos Aires 48 Hours Film Project competition.
At the same time, I've honed my graphic art skills (both traditional and digital) by working as a freelance artist: I've made storyboards for clients both national and international (Yamaha, Boca Jrs, Brahma, Warner Bros, among others), besides designing posters, DVD Boxes and other promotional materials, as well as concept art.
I also work as a comic book artist for HEXLING (by Nicolas Devroye) and TRIUNE (by Willow Polson), and have collaborated as a penciller in several webcomics and comic strips over the years.
I'm also the co-founder of PULSAR Entertainment, a website dedicated to the online publishing and promotion of new indie comics.

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