putting my art degree to good use by researching artists from the 50's-70's to come up with the styles Jude and Lorba have
Since Jude was born on the Cantor belt like Red, his style is v much entrenched on the commercial art of the 50's moving into the 60's. I think he did a lot of advertisement stuff while at home and liked it just fine, but really, REALLY wanted to design for movies.
His early professional work is probs very similar to Benard D'Andrea - where you can really see how it was JUUUST before we hit the 1960's and, while his figures were very classic, there was already some exploration with negative shapes and stylization that wasn't as grounded in reality. Especially with color and color blocking.
Then after doing art for a while and breaking into the film industry, especially around when he was coming to terms with his sexuality and gender - I think Jude really wanted to try pushing the envelope on commercial design and see how far it could go. Considering this was also when a LOT of stylistic advancements and techniques were coming out in movies during the time, it makes a lot of sense!! And I think from then on out he went in a LARGELY Saul Bass direction, with some Bob Peak thrown in for his personal/illustrative work. I don't know how well Bass was respected during his actual time as I've only studied his work and not his life - but considering how celebrated he is nowadays I def think its fair that Jude is a FUCKING LEGEND in the industry where he's at currently. Lorba is actually going to lose her mind if/when she gets to meet him.
Lor meanwhile is one i'm struggling with a tiny bit more. I was tempted to look into a version of the COMIX movement for her - but my real interest in it (the HUGE amount of lesbian/gay underground comix publishing) didn't happen until the late 80's to early 90's, so unless I feel like stretching my time period by over two decades, I'll have to pass.
So instead I'm considering the Psychedelic pop art movement that also sprang up in the 60's-70's and is SOOO gorgeous. I know the two artists I have listed here (and most recognized artists, unfortunately) are men - but this style always felt distinctly feminine to me. That could be that it was some of the first art I saw of the female form being celebrated, though - and the fact that I binge watched Across the Universe over and over as a kid and it had a lesbian character in it. Also he 60's and 70's had a lot of counterculture movements, especially for the gay community and women, that directly went against social standards of the 50's.
I really like how aggressive it is in some senses. It can be all soft shapes that are BARELY legible - but also the colors are extremely stark, the faces are distorted, and if there's text, it almost feels like it's daring you to even TRY reading it. That feels very fitting to Lor in general. Peter Max and Wes Wilson are some inspirations I have for her right now. While it became very commercially successful later on, I think in Nu-Clear's current time period Psychedelic hasn't taken off as a style so strongly yet, so her stuff is definitely an outlier. Though the Psychedelic art movement is also a blind spot for me as I kinda skipped over the 60's and 70's a in my own learning for a while. That's why it's been so fun!!
