Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Living Our Values


Is a snowy, seasonally-appropriate holiday season too much to ask?? Baltimore seems to think so...it's either been unusually warm, or just sort of rainy over here. At least I got to draw some snow for the Dec/Jan cover of The Progressive!

I was tasked with making a typographical cover about issue's theme, "Living Our Values".
All of the writers' values were wide-ranging, so at first I thought it'd be interesting to put different illustrations inside of the "Living Our Values" letterforms. However, I was disappointed to find that I couldn't get the letters big enough to actually be usable spaces for images!
So, after re-reading all the articles, I thought that the main connecting thread was a hope for a better future and a connection with the land/people/environment. I thought that a snowy, unspoiled new-years landscape, with a person just stepping out of of their cabin to enjoy the vista, might work as a symbol for a new beginning.


My AD thought so too, so I tried out some other variations! One of my ideas was to incorporate the sun as part of the Progressive title, and we ended up using it.


I submitted several color variations for the title--this was one of the other options that I liked, besides the red-lettered version which they ended up choosing.

Hand-lettering the whole thing (title included!) was a little intimidating at first, but I'm pleased with the result. I'd love to do more environment-based (or typography-based!) illustrations in the future. Thanks to my AD Nick Jehlen for the fun assignment--and I get to share the issue with lovely illustrators like Victo Ngai & Yuko Shimizu to boot! Happy Holidays guys!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Lady of the Lake


The Lady of the Lake, for the GIRLS: Fact or Fiction art show at Light Grey Art Lab! She was my first choice—what’s not to love about a mysterious, super-powerful, watery maiden, from the tales of King Arthur? I think the most interesting thing about her, to me, is that her exact identity is so vague (it’s thought that she may be based on celtic water deities or nymphs) and yet she had such a big impact on the events in Arthurian legend.
You can buy a print of my Lady here!
I’m sure you’ve already seen some of the other amazing contributions to the show, if not, take a gander! The collected book and all the other prints are all available for purchase there. Plus, if you spend $100 on ANYTHING in the store before the 7th, LGAL will give you a free GIRLS book!

Footnote: The black swans in the background are a small tip of the hat to NC Wyeth's gorgeous Excalibur piece! What a guy.