I took a hiatus from doing any Harvard related posters to focus more on this improv thing. Now that I’ve gotten some free time in my hands (Due to finishing my Improv classes and having less hours at the Improv Asylum because of renovations), I accepted Lowell House Opera director Mike Yashinsky’s request to design the poster for their production of Puccini’s Tosca.
Mike wanted some kind of War propaganda theme to the poster and sent  me several suggestions and links to classic posters in order for me to get the idea. Pshhhh….obviously Mike didn’t  know who he’s dealing with… I’ve dabbled in this war propaganda poster thing before. Yup….

Mein Propoganda! It means NOTHING!

Actually, what I meant to say was I tried this War propaganda poster thing before—just  for shits and giggles and I wasn’t at all an expert with the style. But I’ve always wanted to paint something in the style of war posters and Mike gave me that opportunity.

So first a sketch!

Inspired by a WWII towering Uncle Sam poster Mike sent me. I did this….

In Bizzaro world, a Towering Uncle Sam is a Towering Benito Mussolini

And Mike approved. It received praise! Hooray! It’s time to paint the thing! What’s that Vic? Oh you want to keep the original sketch? OK let’s go to the nearest copy place in Quincy….which is nowhere near  Quincy and is actually 40 minutes on the Red Line to Boston. Get a copy of this thing and then…wait…what’s that? More than one copy? SURE! Make plenty of copies! You’ll have so much you’ll never run out! You are so proud of yourself right now aren’t you Vic? Yes you are! Now don’t be a dumbass and accidentally LEAVE THE SKETCH AND IT’S MANY COPIES ON THE RED LINE ON YOUR WAY BACK TO QUINCY, okay?

And… as you guessed… I went ahead and became a complete dumbass.

I guess lack of sleep and listening to Lady Gaga (yeah I said it…Lady Gaga…you wanna fist fight mo’fo?)  on my ipod made me forget that I was carrying something very important. Lost and found said they didn’t have it and because I didn’t feel like going around town looking for a printer that could print my digital copy on 11 x17 paper….I went ahead and re-drew the whole thing.

The Sketch round 2….

Mussolini gained some weight here.

I gave the characters in the foreground some more of a “Holy fuck! that’s Mussolini!” gesture than the original’s “the fuck is that in the sky?” gesture. As soon as I finished this thing I went ahead and mounted it on a panel and attacked it with paint. Brushing a red preliminary base color to it.

This is also the general idea of what an Asian Flush looks like.

And When I finished that, The rest of the colors I used was inspired by Anselmo Ballester’s Broken Blossom Poster from 1919 .

I had to take this picture with a low quality camera so it looks a bit blurred…anyways here it is:

"Bitch be wearin' mah colors!" Mussolini sneered.

The final poster will have text digitally put in regarding schedules, venue and pricing for the show……and I should be getting a copy very soon.

So yeah, that’s the new LHO poster….In closing–just in case– if you by any chance come across an orange cardboard portfolio in the red line train and see the first Tosca sketch with it’s many copies inside of it, more than likely, that portfolio is mine…. be a dear and please notify me at victorcaezar@gmail.com. Thanks.

-Vic