Arrive Alive

This was my submission to the Joe Bornstein Arrive Alive Creative Contest. The purpose of the submission is to raise awareness about the dangers of driving under the influence. I depicted a young man in a car with Death, sharing a drink as they swerve off the road with the message "Don't Flirt with Death. Drive Sober and Arrive Alive."

To create this piece I first used multiple reference photos from the internet to sketch the car, the man, and the grim reaper figure. I then added the road and skid marks in the background. After sketching the whole thing in light graphite, I added color using colored pencil. I burnished with the pencils in order to obtain rich, saturated colors. Finally, I added the text with the help of a stencil and I went over the text in both white and black pen to maximize contrast. Key elements that I incorporated are color, space, and form. I wanted the scene to be at night so it was crucial to make all of the colors relatively dark. However, I added contrast by using brighter colors where I could, such as red for the car and blue for the young man's suit. Space and form were also important because this piece has a very precise perspective that I had to take into consideration when drawing everything from the car to the road in the background. This piece evolved in that I was originally going to outline the letters beforehand, but decided that adding them at the end would make the colors look cleaner.

I created my vision for this piece based on the idiom "flirting with death," or putting oneself in a dangerous situation. I then created a visual as a literal representation of the phrase as it relates to driving under the influence. While the concept is playful in a way, the situation depicted and the reality is very serious. I wanted to convey this seriousness through the menacing look of Death and the dark environment. Driving under the influence is extremely dangerous as well as illegal and it's important to raise awareness of this danger, especially with young adults. I think this piece could be stronger and better convey my message if the lettering was separate from the image instead of overlapping to create more contrast and less distraction.