Back in May I had posted about my ambitious summer project, a poster for every show/run Phish played this summer. I surprised myself when I first announced it, wondering if this was a good idea. I was still going to do the illustrated setlists, and those can take a lot of time on its own. But here we are in August, and I can say it was a success! 13 posters, 11 different kinds of fish, and a few epic beards in 2 months. It was fun working with detail again, it had been a couple years. This was also my first time drawing fish, so I learned a lot doing that. This project also allowed me to more acquainted with the digital medium. Everything I learned has been self taught ( I avoided digital in college, and learned just enough to edit photographs), and I can say I can do a lot more now than 2 months ago. I’ll be working on Lockn and Dick’s soon, taking a little break to work on some other things. Stay tuned for more!
This summer also marks my 3rd year making my illustrated setlists. I was a bit worried, because I had told myself a while ago that I wouldn’t make them anymore if they started to feel like a chore. At this point, I have the process streamlined, and can create them quickly (I might make a post about the process), but no longer feel that I have to create them right when the show is occurring. Previous years found me showing up to streaming parties with a laptop, drawing pad, and a scanner! By allowing myself to create them at my own pace, so I was able to continue this year without that feeling of “got to do the setlist..” This also gave me the chance to redraw a lot of older songs, especially the ones played frequently, as well as several versions of new songs, which were also played a lot this tour.
The setlists by the numbers:
- 20 setlists
- 457 total songs
- 205 different songs
- 21 bustouts (had to draw a lot of these)
- 9 new songs (most with 2-3 variations)
- 41 new illustrations for songs commonly played
All posters are available in my etsy shop, and I’m offering both poster and setlist for only $25 (plus shipping) !
I also have just the show posters in a more streamlined shop: www.phishart.com
More stuff coming soon, and I’ll soon start taking commissions for specific show setlists.
Not just reading the book, 
Reblogged this on Josean Rivera.