Vintage Comic Book Movie Poster

For my project, I chose to create a vintage comic book movie poster using photopea. The only supplies needed are the software and internet access.

First, begin with a blank background and choose a fill that truly represents a faded or vintage theme. I chose for the core background an eggshell color to relate to many vintage reference movies that have very laid back and basic colors. Any light color can work, just make it so the secondary background (next step) is able to be seen clearly.

The secondary background is very important because it allows all of the figures present in the foreground to either be seen clearly or be a struggle to make out. for the secondary background I chose to use a dark orangish-brown, but later changed it to a neutral blue to match my theme of Captain America. Place this secondary background using the rectangular shape tool and fill tool to choose your color.

Placing subjects in your foreground is the most important part of the project due to it being the focus of one's eye and the focus of the poster's theme. I used Captain America drawn by Alex Ross, which I feel represents the vintage and painting-like feel of the poster. I put Captain America in the lower right corner in order to leave space for any other figures I choose to place on the area.

A title is important to this type of piece, seeing as though having a movie poster without a title kind of defeats the purpose. I found the Captain America character title on line and added a color overlay to make it seem faded and older. I then used the text tool to add the subtitle, choosing a font that I felt represented the time period and adding a outer shadow to reflect the trend found in other vintage posters. I put the title next to the character in the foreground to make the area seem more organized and to allow for more space towards the top.

After completing the foreground I moved to the background which is important in getting rid of negative space. I added Captain America's signature shield and fighter jets in various sizes to relate to Captain America's military theme. In this step, I also changed my secondary background color as stated before. I found these images online and resized them as I wished.

In one of the final additions to my poster, I added a filter to the large shield. I felt this was important in order to provide a more faded and worn feel to the poster. I also added a slight yellow color overlay to also emulate the faded feel.

For the last touch of the poster, I included the Marvel Comics logo used during the '70s until the '90s. I added this to make the poster seem more legit and have a time period reference. I used the magnetic lasso tool to select the words which were originally yellow and cut them to make them transparent in order to make the logo unique and stylish.

Once all of these items are in place the piece is finished. A constant color overlay of yellow or any other warm color with a low opacity will allow the entire piece to look faded and you will gain the effect that allows the piece to truly be seen as vintage.