Washington Post: August Medical Mystery

For the past few months I've been illustrating an ongoing "Medical Mysteries" column by Sandra G. Boodman in the Washington Post's Health & Science section. This month's piece, follows a newborn whose unusual delays in development elude doctors and specialists for years until an unlikely genetic cause is discovered. Below are the thumbnails and sketches, the challenge being how to distill down both the symptoms and the culprit comfortably in the composition while still retaining the uncertainty of the story. Art Direction by Brad Walters.

Boston Globe: "This Beautiful Life"

Here is a small illustration I did for last weekend's Boston Globe Book Review of the novel "This Beautiful Life" by Helen Schulman.  The review traces the path of a family newly transplanted by the father's career into an affluent Manhattan lifestyle, and crisis that emerges against the unfamiliar upper-class backdrop.  Below are the rough ballpoint thumbnail ideas and then the more legible sketches that were submitted.  Art Direction by Jane Martin.

July Sketchbook

Above are some sketchbook pages from the past couple months.  Additionally the original 5"x7" painting below is for sale through Gallery Nucleus' "Power in Numbers" show with all proceeds going to UNICEF.

Ten Thousand Saints

Illustration and idea sketches for the LA Times book review of the novel "Ten Thousand Saints" by Elanor Henderson.  Art Direction by Judith Pryor.

American Trypanosoma

A series of illustrations from a side project that's been in the works.

Illustration Now! Portraits

Just got a copy of the new Taschen Illustration Now! Portraits book in the mail.  I have a couple pages in the book alongside an humbling collection of work by eighty illustrators and edited by Julius Wiedemann. The first section of the book is available to browse through on the Taschen site.  (Cover illustration by the always cool Raphael Vicenzi.)

Beach

Two-color illustration for a short fiction piece by Roberto Bolano in the "Aliens" issue of Granta Magazine.  Much thanks to Michael Salu (and Roberto Bolano) for such consistently rich source material.

Idris Elba

Working on a portrait of Idris Elba for this month's issue of British GQ reminded me how much fun just hitting the page with a brush and ink and some flat colors can be.  Below are the sketch ideas inspired mainly by his role on the BBC crime thriller "Luther" with a little super hero thrown in since his role in "Thor" was kicking around the back of my mind while working.

Also in case anyone's interested the original artwork for this piece, along with a few other paintings is now available for purchase at owenfreeman.bigcartel.com

Medical Mysteries

Over the past couple months I've been illustrating the Medical Mysteries column for the Washington Post Health page.  The articles are on real-life cases where symptoms and conditions lead to unexpected revelations with some false-leads along the way.  From an illustration standpoint it's been an interesting challenge to try to distill the long-term situations into a single dramatic reenactment that contain the condition, the suspects and the culprit, all without giving too much of the ending away.  The June mystery (out yesterday) is about a man who's was repeatedly admitted to the hospital after suffering serious symptoms of liver cirrhosis and diabetes; below are the rough thumbnail ideas and then the sketches which lead to the finish above.

The second illustration below was for the May Medical Mystery about a wedding photographer suffering from a debilitating skin condition and potential culprits from her daily life.  Art Directed by the always great Brad Walters.

Forgetting Why We Remember

Here is an illustration I did for an Op-Ed piece by David W. Blight in yesterday's New York Times. The article was on the largely unknown beginnings of the Memorial Day tradition in America, and the events surrounding the first recorded gathering to mourn the losses of the Civil War in 1865.

Below are the quick ballpoint thumbnail ideas, and then the two more realized sketches from there, and then the finished ink wash painting. Much thanks to Aviva Michaelov for the always inspiring assignments.