Scamps for 'The Elephant Man' play (poster)

Peter, a good friend of mine is directing a stage play version of ‘The Elephant Man’ for The Sawbridgeworth Players (Herts, UK) in the spring and has asked me to come up with some ideas for the poster. These Moleskine scamps (or thumbnail sketches) are a neat and practical way of getting the first seeds of ideas in my head onto a page, without thinking too much, or perhaps thinking more intuitively. It's a practise I do every working day in my art director role - scamps are a useful way of 'viewing the idea from a distance'. In taking very litte time on each early idea and keeping them on a small scale, it allows the designer/artist an 'at-arms-length' viewpoint, much like standing back from a canvas, the proportions and dynamic elements are seen much more easily. It doesn't pay to be precious about minutaie at this point - it's about filtering out the good ones with potential. Next stage, I'll draw/sketch up bigger versions of our joint favourites (a maximum of three) from which the final design will proceed. I am thinking along the lines of a design and medium to suit both the atmosphere and the period of the play - 'Victorian woodblock billboard poster'-style, perhaps with an linocut image. Charcoal also would be suitably gritty!