Lucas Peverill is an independent illustrator who can be found overthinking about life on the island of the United Kingdom. Peverill’s work is greatly influenced by the visual/ pictorial language of Film, Comics and design for the past, present and ultimately the future. By using a combination of digital and analogue techniques. Peverill strives to create pieces that search for new angles to old stories, and bring awareness to films that otherwise go unnoticed. For the last 4 years Peverill has passionately created artwork for various boutique blu-ray releases/ labels, such as Arrow Video, 101 Films. Deaf Crocodile. Umbrella Entertainment. He has also created artwork for companies like Dark Horse Comics. POLITICO, TOPPS, Little White Lies and many more.
Lucas Peverill Art (@lucas_peverill_art) • Instagram photos and videos
Lucas Peverill (@lucas_peverill) / X
Lucas Peverill :: Behance
How did your interest with Asian cinema begin and how did you started working on film posters and covers?
Watching films and animation has always been a major element in my life, and I have always had a real interest in world cinema. In terms of Asian cinema, at a young age I can remember eagerly staying up late at night to watch the films by John Woo, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan on Tv channels. I also used to videotape late night Toonami broadcasts on Cartoon Network that showed “Dragonball Z”, “Cowboy Bebop”, “Samurai Champloo”, “Mobile Suit Gundam”, and many other anime. I was completely fascinated by them.
As I got older my interest in martial arts, anime (Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell, Otomo’s Akira) and the release of The Wachowskis’s “The Matrix” (1999) really intensified my interest in Asian cinema, from there I have never stopped seeking out the weird and wonderful of Asian cinema.
For some time, I had an itch to make poster for a film, I thought it would be a great way to test a style of illustration I was playing with. In 2019 I think was my first actual alternative movie poster I made was for Rian Johnson’s Sci-Fi film “Looper” (2012). I made two posters for that film, as I couldn’t decide on which one I liked most, so yeah I posted them to social media and I got a real amazing response to them. Soon after with that confidence boost I went on to make posters for The Coen Brothers film “No Country for Old Men”, and Adam Wingard’s dark mystery thriller “The Guest”.
From then on I dabbled in creating various AMPs for films that I enjoyed, this eventually built a body of work that I could share with art directors, producers at various Boutique Blu-Ray distributors, and lucky enough that turned into paid work for Arrow Video, 101 Films, Umbrella Entertainment, Deaf Crocodile.
What is your procedure, when you start drawing? Does it differ between working on a movie and a comic?
My art making process is pretty much the same whether it’s for a Blu-Ray cover, comic cover, editorial etc. When I am commissioned to work on a Blu-Ray cover, I straight away watch the film a bunch of times whilst making notes/ thumbnails, and screenshotting like a madman to capture moments, characters, objects and such from the film. I then go on to composing images together digitally using Photoshop and creating a bunch of mock ups/ concepts of the Blu-ray artwork, which I then pick my favorite concepts and go on to refine the design/ compositions so they are more readable to the client.
Only when I feel the sketch is readable with a brief description of the idea, I send it to the client for approval and proceed with developing the image. The final art delivery process depends on the complexity of the design and other elements like changes to the design and such. Other than the format or size of the image, my approach is the same for both Blu-Ray and comic cover artwork.
Have you ever had to do artwork for a film you do not like? Or draw something about a film you like but you end up not liking the work? In general, as a movie fan, what kind of movies do you like?
Obviously working only on projects that excite me will show within my work. When I am working on a project whose subject matter doesn’t excite me, it is obviously more of a battle to get ideas down on paper or the screen. But either way, it is a job, you make it work, otherwise the reality is you lose out on possible future projects.
I could go on forever with my favorite movies. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with animation, sci-fi, horror, action, and comedy films… As I got older I discovered so many types of films, I think going to Art College and University really opened my eyes to the world of Cinema. I discovered so many amazing titles Like “Run Lola Run, “Dobermann”, “Violent Cop”, “La Femme Nikita”, “The Audition”, I think these films are a perfect indication of the type of films I enjoy to these day.
How did your cooperation with Dark Horse Comics and Arrow started?
For years I wanted to work with Arrow Video, I admired the Bluray/DVD cover artwork that was created by various artists for their releases, in particular the work of artists Matt Griffin and Corey Brickley for Arrow were a huge influence to me. Through social media both Matt and Corey really encouraged me to get in touch with Arrow, which I am very thankful for.
In 2019, Arrow ran a competition/creative brief to create artwork for Arrow’s release of Rob Grant’s 2019 film “Harpoon”. I jumped at the chance of creating some art for the creative brief set by Arrow. In result, I created 3 cover designs for the competition. I wanted to show that I could at least come up with more than a couple designs and show my range/ skills at the time. Alas, I didn’t win the competition, but I like to think that it showed the folks at Arrow that I exist and I really wanted to work with them one day.
It wasn’t till late December 2021 that I got the email that I was wishing so much for, it was a commission to make art for “The Shawscope Volume 2” boxset and the film assigned to me was Chang Cheh’s 1979 film “The Magnificent Ruffians”.
I honestly couldn’t believe my luck (still can’t), soon after I then went on to work on the releases of Johnnie To’s “Running Out of Time 1+2” (1999-2001) and my biggest Arrow project, Teruo Ishii’s films “The Executioner” (1974) and “The Executioner II: Karate Inferno” (1974) where I designed the covers for both and the artworks for the booklet and disc. It was a joy to work on these seminal projects that created a base for my career in home video packaging, and forever thankful to my co-workers at Arrow Video.
In terms of my work with Dark Horse Comics, I have always wanted to work in the comic book world. 2014 was the year I really started to explore the idea of creating comics/ sequential art, I started to create work for independent comics anthologies and a standalone comic. I was happy with the work I made but I really wanted to create comic covers and felt it was my strongest quality, and by creating alternative movie posters acted as examples of the kind of comic covers I wanted to make.
So yeah, for years I carried on making art and posting it on social media, till one day on Twitter I got contacted by the editors at Dark Horse Comics to see if I was interested in working with them. I couldn’t believe it, to say I jumped in joy after receiving this email is an understatement. That initial email evolved into my comic cover for Michael Moreci’s comic series “STRANGER THINGS: THE VOYAGE”. I still can’t believe I got to make something for that series.
Can you give us some details about how came up with the artwork of Magnificent Ruffians, The Executioner, Tetsuo, and Violent Cop?
I was commissioned by Arrow Video to make art for “The Magnificent Ruffians”, which would in turn be included in the massive SHAWSCOPE VOLUME TWO set. For this I wanted to feature all of the martial artists in their unique poses referencing loads of screengrabs and the original film posters for the film I formed a composition that I super happy with
Soon after the “The Magnificent Ruffians” project, I was commissioned by Arrow Video to make art for their upcoming “The Executioner” film collection. I wanted all the artwork to focus on Sonny Chiba’s character, whether it’s Chiba fighting some bad guys or a close up shot of his crazy animalistic facial expressions. I ended up creating the slipcover featuring Chiba’s face surrounded by flames, and for the reversible case art Chiba going to work on some goons. For the disc, I drew Chiba in a fighting stance and finally, for the booklet, I featured the 3 main players in the film.
For “Tetsuo: The Iron Man”, I was contacted by the art director at Little White Lies a British movie magazine, to see if I was interested in making art to accompany a written piece to be featured in Issue 91 – focusing on at the time newly released film “Titane”. I loved Ducournau’s “Titane”, and given the subject matter I felt like it was no brainer for me to take on this wicked opportunity.
This illustration accompanied a piece by writer Kambole Campbell that explores the question of why Japanese cinema (incl anime) is interested in this notion of metal melding with human bodies, whether it is kids driving mechs or actual fusion of metal and flesh, a la Akira, Tetsuo, etc etc…The question behind the piece is, why does so much Japanese media cater to what is clearly a cultural fascination? And from where does that fascination stem?
The main focus/ brief for the art was to capture the relationship between flesh and metal, body horror etc. I read that the article referenced Shinya Tsukamoto‘s film “Tetsuo: The Iron Man”. As soon as I realized this I knew exactly what I was going to draw for this written piece: Tetsuo The Iron Man!!!!. I love the filmography of Shinya Tsukamoto so I was accustomed to the type of imagery I was asked to create for this project.
To say that I enjoyed working on this piece is an understatement. I hope I get another crack at Tsukamoto’s films one day.
When it comes to the Alt-poster I made for Kitano’s “Violent Cop”, I knew straight away I wanted to draw a moment from the film, I choose to draw the moment when a detective is brutally hit by a baseball bat by a fleeing criminal suspect. Because from the many shocking moments in the film, it was the placement of the characters in the camera shot that took my eye and I just knew what I wanted the composition of the poster to be at that point.
Can you also let us know of some yourown favorite works? Are there any artists who have had an impact on your work?
Firstly, I would say my rendition of Shozin Fukui’s “964 Pinocchio” (1991) is one of my better moments in my short career in alternative posters, I feel like it was the first time I really let loose but at the same time understood that I had to keep some kind of order to the image, so that it is easier for someone who hasn’t seen the film to somewhat understand what might in store for them if they choose to watch it. I truly believe this poster opened doors for me commissions wise, I owe it a lot.
My second pick would be my poster for Shunya Ito’s “Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion” (1972) starring Meiko Kaji. I particularly enjoy this poster for its composition, color palette and the way I rendered the characters.
In terms of my favorite Blu-Ray cover art that I have made, I would say my Art for 101 Films release of the “Lawnmower Man Collection” is my favorite cover I have done so far.
There are quite a number of artists, designers I follow and study. I have a huge respect for James Jean’s Comic Cover art and his Fine art work as well as many other great artists (Rich Kelly, Tomer Hanuka and more). His rendering style, compositions and attention to detail are pure magic. There are so many amazing illustrators/designers I greatly enjoy like Akiko Stehrenberger, Phantom City Creative, Mike Del Mundo, Marc Aspinall, Matt Griffin and Corey Brickley
Are you working on anything new at the moment?
Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of Blu-Ray projects in the works at the moment that are all at different stages of production, that I can’t really speak about in depth, but I can’t wait to show off my new work to people at some point.
