So often I don't ever get to see my illustration work out doing it's job in public. But the other day, on my way down 24th Street in the Mission, I came across the lottery posters plastered all over the place:
I've had posters of my work wheatpasted around town before, but it's usually political posters that we've put up illegally. Kind of strange to see my work posted legally and in full compliance with all laws and permits!
Back in June, I completed the artwork for the first in a series of young adult novels from MacMillan in the UK, called "The Last Ghost: A Belladonna Johnson Adventure."
I'm really happy with the result, and the decision by designer Rachel Vale to reverse the image on the back, making the spine of the book the trunk of the tree. It's really satisfying to work with talented art directors!
The image is simple, but as with so many of these types of images, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. Here are just a few of the many color sketches I produced for this job -- as you can see, we tried a bunch of different approaches before settling on the girl in the tree.
Also in June, I did the cover for San Francisco's 7x7 Magazine. I love getting a call to do a magazine cover, but when it's your own city, and the issue is the Best of the City issue -- well, that's just extra flattering. Here's what some of the earlier versions looked like:
One thing that was a treat for me was that the art director chose to print this using Pantone colors rather than CMYK, so I got to choose two Pantones I love, and we ran the turquoise at different screens to get different shades. If you can find a printed copy of the magazine, you can see what difference to the color it makes!
I'll be posting more regularly in coming weeks and months!
H.
