After having the pleasure of meeting the guys from Moor-Art in person at Vice Press’ 2024 Open House Event, I was delighted to work with them on this Pulp Fiction-inspired piece! I’m a big fan of the film, so it was great fun trying to capture all of the different moments within one singular illustration.

If you’re interested in nabbing yourself a print, you can find them for sale on Moor-Art’s website!


After James pitched the idea of me doing a Pulp Fiction piece I jumped straight into sketching some ideas. I didn’t have a particular direction in mind, but we knew we wanted to depict all of the different cars, vehicles and locations that feature in the film.

After some mucking around, I felt pretty happy settling on the idea of framing the scene around the Diner. It’s where the film starts, and ends, and the fact that the print takes place moments before the mayhem of the film really kicks off is a nice little concept.


As I was sketching these, I was coming straight off the back of my Sometimes I Think About Dying Illustration, which was most likely the driving influence behind me including the ‘zoom-in’ sections at the top of the artwork. It was also because a lot of the events of the film take place indoors, and I was trying to find a way to work that into the mostly-outdoor direction that the illustration was taking.

With some feedback, I moved away from the inclusion of the panels and focused on trying to contain all of the imagery inside one frame. As such, the print changed from portrait to landscape.


And with that, the sketch was approved, and onto the drawing! Except, t’weren’t that simple. As usual.

I’d started doing the final pencil work, figuring out where everything belonged, but the more I was looking at it the more I was unsure. I felt that the drawing was slightly flat and singular, and I wanted to make the perspective a bit more dynamic. So, in a knee-jerk panic-induced change, I came up with this subsequent variation:



I was, and still am, quite fond of this composition. I think it feels more “lively”. Not just for the actions of the 2 central characters, but also with the positioning/composition of the details in general. Things had become more cramped and layered, which I think is reflective of the film.

I sent it through for feedback, and was a fair bit surprised to hear that everyone unanimously preferred the first option. One of the main issues cited was the depiction of Pumpkin and Honey-Bunny holding up the Diner whilst Jules and Vincent walk by in the background, which, if you’ve seen the film, isn’t what happens narratively. I thought this would be fine, because none of the other details line up narratively either, but it was pointed out that there’d be a select group of people that would probably complain. And, you know, fair enough, it’s true – plenty of people out there looking for a whinge.

So, back to the landscape layout. Which, at this point, was 100% fine with me. Even if I felt unsure, there were a number of artists backing that sketch, and who am I to argue with the pros?


Back to drawing. Across the whole process, this is the part I’m happiest with. Out of everything I’ve drawn, I think this is perhaps the most technically competent piece I’d done up until this point. I wanted to put real emphasis on getting the art to work solely as linework, and I think I really succeeded. Whilst busy, there’s a nice balance of black/white, and all of the details are still visible against each other (something that isn’t always the case). I was doubly relieved since a lot of details ended up being shifted on the fly (things became bigger, more condensed, numerous vehicles and buildings got reshuffled etc), and the pencil marks were creeping into the non-removable territory. I was somewhat worried it was going to ruin the final black and white drawing, but thankfully the pencil just about fell victim to the whim of my eraser.

I knew as soon as I began the project that the final drawing would be given as a gift to my mum. Pulp Fiction is one of her favourite films, and so if I were to ever do a film poster for her, this would be it. The final drawing came out great, and now sits pretty inside this frame that I sanded, painted and backed. Shout out to local charity shops for their plethora of very cheap frames, even if it was a bit difficult finding one to match the awkward size that I decided to do the drawing at. I think this one was £3, something that is immensely gratifying to my tight-fisted nature.




As with the majority of work I do, there were a number of changes I had to make once I scanned the linework in. One of the reasons I was so eager to take on this project was so that I could challenge myself with drawing people (something I am slowly but surely improving with). I was pretty happy with how everybody came out, but let’s be honest, there isn’t exactly a strong sense of likeness towards any of the actors. At most there’s a vague whiff of familiarity, and I think that comes through from the outfits/styling more so than the actual facial features. Below is an image showing what I went through and changed digitally. From things as small as Bruce Willis’ scalp through to resizing heads and motorcycles. 

Even when making the digital changes, it was all still done by eye and by hand, so any concept of likeness is still mostly just a distant dream. I have no problem with tracing or working from film-stills or photographs to capture the likeness, but:

    a. I’m not really aiming to get everything dead-on accurate. As with all of my stuff, I think there’s a charm to everything looking somewhat wonky,

    b. I want to develop drawing people as a skill, and I don’t think at this point in my career that tracing people is particularly conducive to that. If I want to improve, then I think I need to develop an observational eye, and that, I would imagine, comes from actively trying to mimic something, rather than resting on my laurels and following a pre-existing structure.



If you routinely work as an illustrator specialising in portraits and need to capture likeness quickly (i.e. in editorial and the like) then I think that’s a perfectly viable way of creating the artwork, but for me I care more about the process than I do the outcome. And thankfully, since I’ve baked an inherent wonkiness into my work, I’m somewhat afforded that liability.


Since I had the rough colour plan worked out from the get-go, I presumed the colouring process for this was going to be pretty smooth. But Uncle Marsellus had other plans. Working from the rough colour plan that I’d laid out, I got everything nicely coloured in. And…I didn’t like it. Oh dear.

I had a really hard time pinpointing what the problem was. The artwork was supposedly finished, and I had done everything I’d normally do. I mean, I didn’t include any shadows or highlights, but that’s because the black and white linework already worked on its own. Pft…if that sort of stuff was already in the drawing, I didn’t need to add any additional shadows or highlights!


I did a lot of experimenting with the colour, searching for something that would bring a bit more life to it. I tried incorporating some black and white, akin to the cover of the 4K Blu-Ray, and I tried including an additional red border to make everything ‘pop’ more. But nothing was tickling my fancy. Really felt like I’d screwed the pooch and had made something that was proving very hard to salvage to my own standards.

So, I sat on the artwork for a few months, unhappy with it, until I finally revisited it and came to a realisation: it needed shadows and highlights! I have searched long, I have searched hard, and yet I still cannot, for all that is holy, explain to you why it never occurred to me to do this from the beginning. It really just didn’t cross my mind. What a muppet.

When I did get around to spending the time to incorporate them, it was as though the clouds had parted and everything finally clicked together. The piece was working and it finally felt alive. Hallelujah.

One final touch, which I am trying not to do too often because of how time consuming it is, is to colour the linework itself. Ultimately, it adds a lot to the piece, but man does it take a while. That said, it was particularly useful (and needed) with all of the faces I had in the artwork. Replacing the black lines of the skin with something a little more flesh-toned worked wonders to soften the characters and give them depth. It’s also particularly noticeable on the horizon, where a lot of the details are lighter due to being in the distance. Below are some comparisons, as well as a showcase of just the coloured linework.



And with that, the artwork is finished! Whilst we had a bit of a wobble, I’m genuinely very happy with how this came out - which if you’d asked me midway through colouring would have made me awash with pleasant surprise. A huge thank you to James and Moor-Art for the support, input, and having patience in me for getting this over the finish line. It took a minute, but I think it looks great.


If you wish to purchase one of these prints and make me a very happy boy, then you can pick them up through Moor-Art Gallery!

Also, as an additional reward for reading this far I’ll let you in on a little secret. You know throughout the film, that there’s a mystery object inside the briefcase? Well, I’ve heard through the grapevine that it was actually intended to be a copy of this print. Shocking, I know. Who knew! At least we can finally put all of those other nonsense theories to bed.