Billie Jean; 30 years of Nike poster making

 This 1985 'Vandal' poster was created by Billie Jean (also known as Sam Plyasena). It was created to advertise Nike trainers and its 30 year anniversary of creating the top designer multi-purpose trainers. Sam designed this poster by using bic brio pen on graph paper. By simply doodling anything to do with Nike trainers, he managed to create this..using a pen!!

He mainly used this to show that even the craziest of doodles put together can create an amazing piece of art or the most effective advertisement. 

 After looking at a few more examples of his work (images top, left and bottom left), I think that the Vandal poster has to be my chosen one to analyse simply because it is so amazing how he managed to create something so beautiful just by doodling (which I tend to do a lot - but never knew it could lead to creating something like that!). 

The fact that he managed to get the shadings, shape and design of the shoe perfectly as well as inc-operating other bits and pieces that relate to or describe feelings towards the brand is truly fascinating and has now inspired 

even more to continue doodling (in the right time) and try to create something just as amazing as his work.

The way in which he also tied in a retro theme by adding a rubix cube and pac man game elements, add to the fact that this brand of trainers has been around and just as popular in the retro ages as well as now and also it adds to the retro style that the poster has as well from the way in which he laid everything out - in the style that you would find most retro posters with.

These are my attempts at doing a Billie Jean style drawing and if I do say so myself I am rather happy with it. By simply using nothing else but a biro pen, I began to doodle the song I was listening to which was called Fly Away by Jovi Rockwell (a Caribbean artist). 
I really like how I managed to blend the black and the blue when drawing her face and the hair, also how I tried to find different things that linked with the lyrics i wrote with it as well.


The reason in which I did this drawing was because, I always like to experiment when i come across something new and something that looks interesting and fun, and this was all three in one.


I don't like the fact that despite it still looking good for a first attempt, it looks rushed. I could have spent a bit more time on the hair and eye like paying a bit more attention to detail and being careful with my mark making and shading.


I would change the layout, like where i drew everything, next time I shall do it so its like step by step (it flows in the layout of the lyrics). I would also draw the full face this time, at the time, drawing half the face sounded a bit more interesting until i actually did it - then i thought differently.