Sinners Prologue Illustrations
Project: Sinners Prologue Sequence
Client: Perception Media Corporation, Proximity Media, Warner Bros.
Year: 2025
The prologue, created by Perception, serves as a tonal prelude, a visual storybook that grounds the audience in the history, myth, and shadow of the world they’re about to enter. Much like folklore passed down through oral tradition, the sequence builds in rhythm: first with haunting stillness, then with imagery that grows darker and more supernatural as vampire myth intertwines with Southern storytelling.
Sinners is bloody and gritty and grounded in the 1930s, so the sequence had to fit with the rest of the movie.
The linocut style symbolised the endurance of memory - images carved into permanence, just as ancestral stories are etched into culture. The weathered textures reflected cycles of struggle and survival, while the stark contrasts echoed the film’s moral terrain” faith and doubt, life and death, humanity and monstrosity.
Perception worked directly with myself, a linocut artist and illustrator, to explore real textures and materials firsthand, examining how they shifted and came alive under different lighting conditions. The sequence was built entirely digitally, but to preserve the handmade sensibility, I was commissioned to create a series of digital illustrations in my own linocut hand which were then reworked by Perception into the final sequence.
The biggest risk with a process like this is losing the physical imperfections and human touch that make it feel real, so that was made a priority. Each illustration was brought into Photoshop, where they ‘carved’ into the artwork one stroke at a time, layering brush strokes to replicate the linocut process.
By embracing limitations - fewer colours, slower rhythms, coarser textures - the sequence feels rooted in tradition, while still carrying the cinematic weight expected in a modern feature film.
The prologue to Sinners is more than an introduction - it’s a bridge between folklore and modern cinema, grounding the film in history and place before the first line of dialogue.
I was honoured to have been asked to contribute to this project by Perception, and proud to contribute to the rich, unique world of Sinners.
Accolades for Sinners:
Won: Best Original Screenplay - Ryan Coogler, Best Original Score - Ludwig Göransson, Best Cinematography - Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Best Actor - Michael B. Jordan, at the 98th Academy Awards.
Nominated for 16 Oscars - the most of any film in history.
Won: Male Actor in a Leading Role - Michael B. Jordan, and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - ensemble, at The Actor Awards by SAG-AFTRA.
Won: Best Actress in a Supporting role - Wunmi Mosaku, Best Original Screenplay - Ryan Coogler, and Best Original Score, Ludwig Göransson, at the BAFTAS. It is now the most decorated movie by a black director in BAFTA history.
Won: Best Original Score, and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Golden Globes.
Won: Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Score Soundtrack Album for Visual Media at the Grammys.
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Read the full case study by Perception on their website: https://www.experienceperception.com/work/sinners/