Six Little Bullets, Standing In A Row…

This cheery little piece was inspired by the recent Tucson shooting in which six people were killed and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords severely wounded. It shows a familiar cycle: a high-profile shooting, death, outrage (coupled in this particular case with a “call for civility”), gradual loss of interest, a return to complacency, then another shooting and the cycle repeats itself. Here’s the final.

Scroll down to see the construction sequence.

Here’s the original line drawing which I scanned into Photoshop:

I decided to try an experiment and color the bullets using a photo of an actual bullet. A 9mm Glock pistol was used in the Tucson shooting. I found a photo with 9mm ammunition, and sharpened it by applying Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask filter several times. I posterized the image to define it more clearly and give it more of an illustrated look. I used the Pen tool to extract the 9mm bullet, and experimented with different color adjustments until I got a bullet that “looked right.” 

I copied the bullet, pasted it in for each of the 18 figures in the illustration, and trimmed as needed.

I used a Splatter Brush to add blood to two of the bullets. I used the Dodge and Burn tools to lighten and darken parts of each figure and help them flow into each other. I also adjusted some of the faces to improve the expressions and give them a better flow. I used the Type tool to add a more formal R.I.P. to the two gravestones. 

I added a stream of gunsmoke for background to help unify the illustration. Then I realized that the “bullet faces” looked a little too darkish against the gunsmoke.

I used the Dodge and Burn tools to adjust the lighting on the faces. Finally, I used the Warp tool to bend my signature along the edge of the second gravestone. Here’s the final again: