The New Yorker: Thank You for the Light

Illustration for an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story in this week's New Yorker.

Nike: Jordan Trunner Dominate

Last fall I started working with Nike to illustrate a series of comic-book-type cityscapes designed to be staging backdrops for large-format displays for the just released Jordan 'Dominate Training' campaign, featuring photos of Chris Paul.

The sketches emphasized familiar, but not-quite-recognizable, cityscapes and alleyways, balancing dark corners and highlights to show early morning light. The left top and bottom sketches were selected, with some adjustments, and the addition of a basketball court.


Here are a couple of the details from the finished line drawings (developed at 1200 dpi for the sake of enlargement) and below are the layouts from the Nike design team and some shots of the finished displays. Much thanks to David Frank and the whole team at Nike for the great collaboration.

The New Yorker: Doctor Who

Getting assignments to work on something you're a fan of is always fun, but getting to work on something that you become a fan of while working is especially cool. I got a call from The New Yorker to illustrate a Doctor Who piece by Emily Nussbaum for the Sci-Fi issue and immediately regretted having put off watching the series. However, there's a lot to be said for being immersed in an entirely new subject while sketching and, in the case of the Doctor Who series, the only real visual struggle was editing down the wealth of great locations and monsters. Below are some of the unused rough sketches and the four sketches I cleaned up to submit. Thanks again to Chris Curry for the consistently fun assignments, and to the BBC for an exceptionally smart show.

Washington Post: GSD

May Medical Mystery illustration for today's Washington Post. Art Director Brad Walters.

Grantland: Hagler v. Leonard

 The new issue of Grantland, McSweeney's sports quarterly is on stands now with a huge amount of really nice artwork and essays. I had the good fortune to get to work with Juliet Litman on an illustration for a piece by Eric Raskin recounting the hotly debated oral history of the 1987 Hagler vs. Leonard fight. The crux of the piece being how subjective the calls were depending on perspectives and tastes of the judges, and how far from clean-cut the final decision was. Below are a few of the steps of the process, beginning with thumbnails done while reading the article, followed by sketches on the idea of conflicting viewpoints, and then the ink drawing layers.

Brush + Ink: May

Some new excerpts from the daily drawing exercise.

Mother Jones: Nuclear Truckers

I got a call from Tim Luddy at Mother Jones to illustrate an article by Adam Wienstein about nuclear trucking routes through major cities and across the US. The security safeguards and trainings were interesting to learn about, but for the sketches I tried to come up with some scenes that conveyed the ominousness of these unmarked trucks and their radioactive cargo against the roads and cities we use every day. The issue is on newsstands now, much thanks again to Tim Luddy for the assignment.

Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin: Destinations

A few months ago I had the opportunity to work on a series of illustrations for Birthe Steinbeck at the German Newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. It was a travel feature on extreme destinations around the globe (the deepest cave, the flattest place, and the steepest stone wall) and an interesting challenge to work primarily without figures.

The New Yorker: John Carter

Last week I got a call to illustrate the John Carter film review for this week's New Yorker. Not having seen the film at the time, I pored over the (surprisingly) great selection of early teaser previews and clips from the movie while working on the sketches below. Ultimately we went with the giant monster attack scene, which was (not surprisingly) super fun to work on. Much thanks to Jordan Awan for the call.
 

Brush + Ink

Brush and ink sketches from the past week.