INTERVIEW: Artist Russell Treloar on Painting Original Posters for Iconic Movies

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Russell Treloar is a painter, illustrator, designer and film enthusiast based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. For the past five years, Treloar has dedicated much of his time to painting alternate movie posters such as the Commando poster to the left and the Eyes Wide Shut poster to the right. Treloar uses pencils and paint on illustraion boards to create his posters and adds in extras like text and colour grading in Photoshop.

Running Man first came in contact with Treloar after seeing his Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie poster/painting, which was displayed on-stage by Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol at their screening in Vancouver. The poster is featured on the cover of this issue, and the full version can be seen in the centrespread on pages 12 and 13. A good deal of Treloar’s artwork is featured in this issue of Running Man, but more can be found on his website (russelltreloar.ca).

Scroll to the bottom of the article to view more illustrations by Treloar.

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RMP: I saw your Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie poster and it caught my eye right away. It’s a great poster.

TRELOAR: Thank you so much. Yeah, those guys are great.

RMP: It was displayed at one of the early screenings of the movie. How did that come about? Did you meet Matt and Jay?

TRELOAR: I’d say it was more of a close encounter during their North American Tour event in Vancouver. It was kind of a funny story. After the screening during a Q and A, Matt suddenly ran backstage saying he wanted to show everyone a prop, and then brought out my poster artwork! He then called me out in the audience and asked me to stand up and identify myself. We had a short dialogue about the creation of the artwork which they were really enthusiastic about. But I didn’t actually get to chat with them after, since it was 1:00 am and they had to head to the next city on their tour. But, it was a pretty cool experience.

RMP: Why did you make a poster for that film in particular?

TRELOAR: I’d always loved the show. I’d watched the series when it was on Viceland back around 2016–2017 and then I knew they were thinking about doing a movie. This past September, I heard Matt and Jay on CBC Radio with Tom Power promoting the film. They told him that the film, which didn’t start off as a time-travel story, found some inspiration in Back to the Future in its later stages of development and that the CN Tower would be an important set-piece. So I ran with those two hints and thought about what might make a cool poster, as an artist and a fan. The artwork ended up being a playful homage to Drew Struzan’s Back to the Future posters with a Canadian twist. He has always been a big artistic influence for me and had sadly passed away in October, so he was definitely on my mind. But I hadn’t actually seen the film, and had no actual images from the movie to work with!

Then I found out that Matt and Jay were touring around North America doing early screenings with a live Q&A and I was able to get tickets to the Vancouver one. I posted my artwork on Instagram saying I was heading to the screening and then I got a couple DMs from Jay McCarrol, who basically said, “Hey, man, we really love your poster and would love to get a copy. See you at the event.” And so that led me to the decision to haul the 30-inch by 40-inch original artwork on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver to let them take a look.

RMP: Oh yeah, so that was the original they had on stage?

TRELOAR: Yeah, yeah, exactly. But that was a surprise to me. I was just thinking I could show Jay in the green room after the event, because he was curious about the art. But then, unbeknownst to me, they had unpacked it and brought it out to show everybody in the audience, which was super cool. I actually decided to gift the original art to them, and so it went back to Toronto after the event. I’m proud to say it hangs in their offices now–which I think is a pretty fitting destiny for fan art!

RMP: You’re based in Victoria?

TRELOAR: Yes, based in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Close enough to Vancouver that it’s not too far to get over to some great events.

RMP: Are there many events in Victoria? Art‑wise?

TRELOAR: It’s got a small art community, but nothing connected to the film world and so I’ve had to seek connections further afield. One thing that’s been really cool is, I was invited to be part of a small film poster‑artist group made up of artists from various locations in the US, Canada and the UK and we have a video meet-up every month. They’re all active working artists and illustrators doing hand‑painted film poster illustration work and who love movies. We also have a WhatsApp chat where we connect regularly to share process tips, business ideas and art and film inspiration. One of them was actually closely connected to the Struzan family and spent time in Drew’s studio in Los Angeles, so he shares a lot of tips on Drew’s process and some of the materials he used.

It’s been a great way for me to connect to this type of niche art community that I couldn’t otherwise, living in Victoria. So a big shout out to Nathan, Eric, Colin and Ethan and all of their advice and support.

RMP: And when did you get into the movie posters? From what I’ve seen, you were doing more typical paintings before that.

TRELOAR: Yeah, that’s right. I started in fine‑art figurative painting, which I began to do more seriously in 2005 and then began exhibiting work in the typical juried group shows. I was lucky and found a few collectors who connected with my work. But in 2021, I decided I would try to merge my lifelong love of cinema with my background in visual arts and fine‑art painting. Since then, I’ve been totally focused on creating film inspired illustration and pop culture artwork.

RMP: How do you choose which film and which shot or scene to use in the poster? Is it a specific part of the movie that inspires you?

TRELOAR: Sometimes it’s just a personal project where I’m inspired by a particular film, a filmmaker or something I’ve seen–most often an older film that I’ve revisited. There’s usually a conceptual image that comes from that viewing and then I’ll meticulously rewatch the film and gather compelling stills and build my composition from those. The artwork can also be an actual assignment. For instance, I’ve started working with Layered Butter, which is this amazing film publication based in Toronto built around celebrating the art of cinema and the visual artists who create work inspired by the movies. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the magazine?

RMP: I heard of them through you, actually, but not before that.

TRELOAR: I’ve really enjoyed working with Andrew Perucho there, who’s one of the founders and a Creative Director. We’ve had a chance to collaborate a couple of times, once for their Stanley Kubrick volume a couple years ago when I created an Eyes Wide Shut piece. Then this past year I was asked to paint a La La Land poster for their new Tiny Poster Club idea. It’s this great concept where they commission an artist to create a new limited edition postcard‑sized poster each month that gets sent out to their subscribers for a nominal fee–it’s doing really well.

This past December, they also invited me back to use my Eyes Wide Shut poster for a Melanholidays screening of the film at the Paradise theatre on Bloor Street where everyone in the audience got a copy of the poster with their admission fee. It was really well-received and I’m always very excited about community events centered around cinema like that.

RMP: So is this becoming a full-time thing for you? Or is it something you do on the side?

TRELOAR: Yeah, it’s kind of that classic story where I still have a corporate day job, but would actually love to devote more and more of my time to the art life. Creating art is what I actually love to do. But I’ve been lucky—my background’s in architectural design, and so there’s still an element of creativity in my day job. But the hours just fly by doing this type of film illustration work.

RMP: I was going to ask about that. Approximately how long would a full piece take? Say, the Nirvanna the Band the Show poster.

TRELOAR: That one came together pretty quickly. I probably spent maybe 30–35 hours on it. [laughs] It’s interesting, sometimes they just flow out of you, and sometimes they’re laborious and painful. I was pretty motivated with the Nirvanna the Band the Show piece because between the September CBC interview and the November event in Vancouver, I had a self-imposed deadline.

Whereas, some paintings will take longer just because there might be added complexities for some imagery or artistic issues that come up because it’s hand‑painted. You don’t have the luxury with traditional art to cleanly erase and start again, or Command‑Z, and undo when you slip up. You have to work with what you’ve got.

RMP: Have you ever ruined one that was going along nicely, or can you paint over the mistakes?

TRELOAR: I haven’t ruined any pieces, which is pretty lucky, considering I’ve done quite a few now. If I had the chance to redo one of them, I might change little things here and there, or there might be coffee stains that got on the original or smears and smudges. I mean, some of that you can clean up a little bit when you get to the digital stage at the end, where you add the text and the billing blocks.

RMP: How does the whole process work from beginning to end? Do you start with pencil?

TRELOAR: I’ll come up with a composition that usually starts with a thumbnail pencil sketch and then from there I’ll find photo references and move them around in Photoshop until I’m happy with the layout. I’ll transfer that final comp to an illustration board with good old pencil and eraser and start adding thin layers of paint. I use acrylic gouache as my base layer and then finish with a layer of coloured pencil crayon. The pencil crayons are definitely my favourite stage because I can add texture, linework and do colour corrections. As a thumbnail on Instagram, my work can look very realistic, but when you see the originals up close, they definitely have a painterly, rougher textural quality to them.

RMP: Do you keep the originals or sell them?

TRELOAR: I’ve been able to sell a few. Collectors will reach out, and that’s happened with the Layered Butter work—I was able to sell those pieces because there was good exposure to the work through the magazine. They really promote the artists they work with. But, [laughs] most of the original pieces just stack up in storage. Somebody’s gonna have to figure out what to do with them when I’m gone, whether it’s my son or whoever. Good or bad, there is physical artwork that will exist and live on after me, whereas if it was just a file on a hard drive I’m not sure if it would be treated the same way.

RMP: Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve done?

TRELOAR: I’m pretty proud of the Commando one. I don’t know if you had a chance to see that one?

RMP: Yeah with Arnold Schwarzenegger—

TRELOAR: I think part of why I think it was successful was because it was one of my more complex multi-figure compositions, but it came together so easily. Another one that I really enjoyed doing was the Perfect Days and Sonatine posters, because there was a lot of invention required for both of those. I had to come up with imagery to fill in what I didn’t have as a reference from the actual film.

For instance, the Sonatine poster has Takeshi Kitano tossing a Frisbee while the lower half of his body is buried in sand—and I had to use myself as a model to come up with that pose, because it just didn’t exist in the film. Then you kind of have to work the imagery from the film into your own pose. So that was a lot of fun. Even the Sonatine title was… I just went down to the beach, drew “Sonatine” in the sand, and then superimposed it onto the painted piece.

RMP: How did you do that?

TRELOAR: The title portion was digital, so I photographed my etching into the sand, and then worked it up so that the colour was correct and could match the hand‑painted artwork.

RMP: Besides Struzan, which artists are you inspired by? I imagine there might be directors and people in the film industry as well.

TRELOAR: I’m first and foremost a cinephile, so I definitely follow filmmakers like some people follow professional athletes. My love of film is really what drives the art. So, Japanese cinema has always been influential for me. Takeshi Kitano, whom I just mentioned, is a filmmaker whose work I’ve always loved. But a lot of other contemporary Japanese filmmakers really resonate for me, such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. I love the stillness and careful composition of Japanese cinema which already has a painterly quality to it. I’ve learned a lot as an artist from watching films. I probably watch 120–150 films every year, all studiously logged on Letterboxd since 2012! I feel like film teaches painters to pause time with intention.

So you have this single still image that is shaped by what’s come before, but also anticipates what comes next. So it’s kind of a frozen moment with a narrative built into it. I tried to do with my fine‑art figurative paintings as well: try to tell a story, even though it’s just a single still image and invite interpretation from what you decide to put on the page.

RMP: I looked at your Letterboxd and I checked out your top 100. Well, the first thing I noticed was that Twins made the cut. [Russell laughs] And then when I saw The Shining. I really like the classic poster (by Saul Bass) and I was wondering, if you were to do a poster for The Shining, do you know what you might do?

TRELOAR: The Shining would be an amazing one to make. I love that film. I love Kubrick. I’ve always been fascinated by the Overlook Hotel, the architecture of it. And with my background in architecture, I feel like I would take that approach, whether it would be some sort of foreboding interior or the snowy exterior. Even though they shot interior/exterior in two different locations. There’s just something about the hotel itself that I would want to incorporate into a poster.

RMP: And then who is your favourite actor? I noticed Nicolas Cage in your work a couple of times.

TRELOAR: [Laughs] Nicolas Cage is a great actor. I actually just posted an old poster I’d done for Vampire’s Kiss on Instagram to celebrate his birthday in January! A new Cage film is always a cinematic event for me. Adaptation and Pig—also both amazing performances. And, of course, Vampire’s Kiss, which I feel like was ahead of its time, and people should revisit now, I feel like it’s a truly under-appreciated film.

Michael Mann’s Heat has always been near the top of the list for me. Again, the way Mann composes his films—the framing, compositions and cinematography—his films have definitely been a big influence on my work.

RMP: Since you have the corporate job and you do this, which is very time‑consuming, how do you schedule your time? When you get home, are you getting straight to work or waiting for a burst of inspiration?

TRELOAR: It happens in an obsessive way. If I’m working on a piece, I’m devoting all my free time to that piece until it’s done. So, working in and around family time, the day job, and all the other stuff that kind of gets in the way [laughs]. Instead of watching movies or all the other free‑time activities I might normally do, I’m working on that piece and feeling guilty if I’m not working on that piece. I feel compelled to go until it’s done. Sometimes I’ll have 7–8 hour stretches on a Saturday or a Sunday, where I barely even get up from the board when I’m in a flow state. When I was younger, sometimes I would work into the early hours of the night, you know, 2–3 a.m. Now I’m just too old, I need to go to sleep. So, a late night for me would be working till about midnight on one of the pieces.

RMP: That’s impressive with all the distractions there are now.

TRELOAR: Yeah, it’s good. I mean, I live in an artistic household. My wife’s a full‑time visual artist, and my 15-year-old son is now doing time‑lapse pencil drawings of pro athletes. So our home is kind of like a studio space where doing art and living the art life is an accepted thing.

RMP: Do you have a vision for where you would like to take this? Do you want to be doing it full-time? What is your goal?

TRELOAR: The goal is trying to get more licensed work with studios, magazines, and pop‑culture galleries. I’ve had the chance to do a few Blu‑ray covers. That’s interesting to me. But, I think the ultimate goal is to work with a studio to either produce an alternative film poster for a campaign or have a director love your style and reach out directly. You don’t see a ton of traditionally illustrated artwork making its way into marketing, but the aesthetic is making a comeback.

RMP: Yeah, The Chair Company, have you seen that poster?

TRELOAR: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That’s a great recent example from the Gravillis studio. It grabbed my attention right away–there’s something to it, right?

RMP: I find it more interesting.

TRELOAR: Yeah, I have to be careful what I say. Obviously, my personal preference is doing hand‑painted work because it takes me away from the screen and it’s a break from the digital dominance that we’re seeing. But it’s also nostalgic for me because I grew up during an era of movies where all the posters were all illustrated, like Drew Struzan’s work. It’s a style that’s burned into my mind as what a movie poster should look like. It was created by a human and there’s time and decision built into every little brushstroke. I’m excited when I get to see the artist’s hand, and that’s what makes the image more interesting to me.

RMP: I should ask–which movies are you excited for in 2026?

TRELOAR: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey comes to mind. That’s probably on everyone’s list. Spielberg’s new movie Disclosure Day looks really good as well. The Adventures of Cliff Booth—David Fincher’s new film with Brad Pitt reprising his role from Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. A smaller film I’m anticipating is called Behemoth! it’s a new film from Tony Gilroy, who directed Michael Clayton—we don’t know exactly what it’s about yet, but it’s supposed to be a love letter to the music of movies and people who make it.

I was one of those weird kids who was listening to movie soundtracks instead of Pearl Jam during the ‘90s. A score like Leonard Rosenman’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, or something really nerdy like that. So the idea of a movie about people who make music for movies sounds interesting. I’m sure there are tons of others on my radar, but, yeah, I’m always monitoring what’s emerging, what’s getting buzz.

Obviously, I’m curious about how Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie will be received. That’s a film that I’m looking forward to being in wide release, even though I’ve now seen it. I hope people will be able to discover the show through the film and what Matt and Jay have created—to me, they’re like Canadian legends.

RMP: I agree.

TRELOAR: I just love those guys and the cleverness of the show itself. It’s got to be one of the best shows ever to come out of Canada, and I’d argue, anywhere.