Pete Townshend for "A Circus Mind"

Here's my sixth illustration for Ryan W. Cox's "A Circus Mind" book. Check out the other ones here! All the images in the book will adhere to one colour palette, you can see what some of those colours are if you check out the images I've done so far. Prints of this image and more available on my Society6 shop page!

This illustration is for a poem called "Pete Townshend" and is set in swingin' 60s mod London, more specifically Brighton Beach. The background wood texture is meant to resemble the famous boardwalk there. And who can think of The Who without their rock opera "Tommy"? So I incorporated some pinball motifs as well. For some reason I purposely put the red pinball bumpers in front of the wiry bit that snakes around on the left side. I realize it doesn't make sense but for some reason I like it that way! In fact, this entire image doesn't make much sense -- I think illustrating these poems is really freeing me up from being so literal with my illustrations. Feels good!

Townshend is credited as one of the first musicians to really incorporate distortion into music, which is why the Union Jack is cracking while his guitar spits sparks. And lastly, he's best known for this signature windmill move so of course I had to include that!

  

The initial sketch is pretty sketchy!