2022 Minnesota Game Poster: Penn State

For once, my Gophers game poster will take inspiration from a modern album — one that was released just this year, in fact: Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You.

First, I must say that I absolutely love Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. I love Big Thief, but I especially love this record. Indie-interested people have probably come across it at this point, since Big Thief is far from an underground group, but if anyone hasn't listened to it yet and is interested in an eclectic mix of folk, country, and polished, effects-heavy rock with dashes of electronica, I cannot recommend the album any more highly. I do not hesitate to call it a 10 out of 10.

Anyway: This week's poster was made just in a sketchbook with a pencil and eraser. I touched up the picture I took with my phone's very basic editing effects, but that was the extent of my post-production.

The original album cover featured a small bear sitting on a log, playing guitar around a fire with an owl, another bird (a sparrow?) and a Tyrannosaurus Rex (or some other therapod). I couldn't think of an appropriate party of four to put around this fire, but I did decide the special talent Goldy could show off was spinning his head. His counterpart, the Nittany Lion, stands in amazement, fury, or some other unclear emotion. You can't find much depth of feeling in that face.

This isn't a great work of art or anything, and I never felt great about how to center the two mascots around the fire, but in general I am happy with what I made here. It was a fairly quick, easy, and fun drawing. If you stretch a bit, you can say there's a tie-in between the album and the game: There's a White Out at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, and it's an all white poster. There's the title and the area around State College, too. Maybe call this Goldy Nittany Mountain I Believe in You. Or maybe don't.

Previous posters can be found by clicking the Art label at the bottom of this post.