Thomas Pitilli – Black Star

Here’s a recent illustration I did of the legendary hip hop group, Black Star. The group consists of  Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (formally known as Mos Def). I’ve been a fan of both of their individual careers for a while and now that the group is back together, it’s exciting to hear the new music that is coming out.  I tired my best to capture their style, which really sets itself apart from the majority of the current  hip hop aesthetic, and was fun to interpret in an illustration.

Here’s a look at the idea in it’s early sketch phase. I wanted something simple that captured their movement and energy on stage as well  as showcasing their bad ass vintage mics which are super cool! I knew I wanted to do some kind of abstract, colorful background, so that is very roughly indicated here.

After I decided on that sketch, I lightboxed some pencils over it, and inked it up.  Here is the final black and white image.

I had a lot of fun working on this, it’s always enjoyable creating images of people that you are interested in, I feel that connection always makes the image stronger in the end.

Thanks for reading!