Posters, Signs and details Part 2

Some time ago I posted up this, talking about how I approach the details and posters for my terrain. After the break I’m going to continue that line of thought and go into some of my own poster creations and how I gather images to use. Along with my attempts to portray what life was like before war came with food, motivational and other posters that you would expect to see in a normal imperial city. 

The easiest place to start is with games workshop’s own artwork. And as such it was where I started myself one of the Imperial Guard in action and a second of the Emperor. Both images have been abused so much in de-motivational gags, forums and other uses that finding references to the original is somewhat tricky but they are both originally GW and the rights owned by them.

Using Photoshop or similar adding an Imperial Eagle and a shiny slogan turns a piece of artwork into a great terrain detail. I can strongly advise reading the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley while doing this as inspiration for slogans many of which crop up in some of my posters.

After Games workshop images the next best source is historical. Not only is there a wealth of cool military posters from 1^st and 2^nd world wars but during the cold war both America and Russia produced them by the ton. Additionally china and many more countries have used propaganda posters both of military support, vigilance and to encourage workforces. Two examples of my own modifications

Original Propaganda Posters

Cold War Soviet Union - Be watchful while standing sentinel and 1^st World War America 

Once I’d used these to practice on I decided to have a play with something a little more complex.

I utilised Photshop’s editing tools and layer tools to produce my fist composite image for a poster. I used a background image from what I believe to be a Joop add and some flames cut from a photo of my metal furnace.

(unfortunately the link for the original Joop image appears dead but the belt had the Joop logo on it before I edited it out)

Largely pleased with this I moved onto my second offering. Beginning with quite a grim hospital picture I found some screenshots from the 2011 film Season of the witch and cut the plague doctors out. Again playing with photo shop I produce my second heretical poster.

These two along with two others to come are meant to give a feel for the causes of heresy that could well have lead to war. A risqué club night and a seemingly benevolent hospital wouldn't really be much of an issue but with the logo of Slannesh and reference to papa and the bio-hazard symbol hints at darker forces behind these posters.

Not everything is plain sailing and my WIP of the Khorn poster still needs some work. while it looks good alone it's to dark and illegible once printed to size. made up of dozens of images that I've lost the sources for, I just hope I have the layered Photoshop files to stand a chance of fixing it up.

One of the things I really want to portray is a glimpse at what life was like before war came. DO do so I want to fill billboards with adverts and slogans that aren't about war and the military or even Heretical hints but just day to day life. 
Searching the net is an excellent place to start. Once you've found a good stash of historic posters there are numerous popular culture references that can be delved into for inspiration and source material. Pixar films such as Wall-e and Up have a multitude of posters that could be adapted but to finish today I'll share three of my favourite posters that need no work at all.

Mr handy from Fallout
Rocker Boy BEANs from Captain Ribman
Optimize Production from Team Fortress 2

I hope this has proven intresting for you and helpful, I'll leave off today with a couple of links that have a whole host of useful posters and will no doubt pick up again at some point when I'll look at large billboards and some adverts I'm working on.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Poster
http://digitalpostercollection.com/