GQ Magazine Germany · Dec 2013
2013
In November my amazing agent, Deborah Wolfe, was contacted by Axel Lauer from GQ Magazine Germany with a really great project for me. They had a number of illustrations requests for the Christmas season and I was thrilled to oblige!
As it turns out, I love drawing Christmas imagery (or any seasonal imagery for that matter). There's something about being able to capture some of those vintage americana moments I remember growing up with that is refreshing to my artistic soul - as if I'm painting memories and feelings onto the canvas.
The topics covered in the brief all stemmed from the overarching theme of "Surviving the Holidays" which included couples fighting on New Years, employees enjoying an empty office during Christmas break, and guys enduring family gatherings. It also included an article on comedian David Sedaris which afforded me the opportunity to do a fun portrait. Each of the illustrations presented a unique visual challenge I was excited to tackle.
For the Process Junkies: This was also an opportunity for me to use a new step in my working method. I'm always looking for ways to fine tune my methods, especially if I find myself spending too much time with too few results in a particular part of my process. I found that if I print out a sheet of 8.5x11 paper with small boxes scaled down from the final dimension of the illustration, I'm able to quickly iterate on a number of solutions using a good ol' pencil and a few inks.
If that sounds rudimentary, its because it is. Creating thumbnails is illustration 101 but it was a step I wasn't employing before because I was in too much of a hurry to get to the digital canvas working at full size. Hey, we all have room to grow... though my growth often has me going back to basics!
With the process solidified and the project at hand, I was ready to go! I hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed creating them! Big thanks to Axel for the opportunity and for one of the smoothest editorial projects I've done so far!
Couples Fighting
This was a really fun image to work on. I wanted it to look as if you're peering into the scene so I opted to utilize the white of the page as a design element to frame and cut out the illustration.
Relaxing in An Empty Office
Who doesn't enjoy an empty office!? These kinds of spot illustrations are always a fun challenge for me as you really have to balance the amount of specified detail.
Christmas & New Years Icons
The icons I got to create for the articles turned out to be one of the most fun things I've worked on. What I love about icon illustration is the focus on strong, quickly readable shapes. Working with the icons was where I first developed the color palette you see in the rest of the pieces.
David Sedaris
Last up for the series was a trippy holiday illustration of David Sedaris. I haven't had a chance to read the article this one accompanies, but from what I understand its a pretty crazy story!
For more of my work, stop by my site! You'll get to read more about my process and see the images on a much larger scale.
Thank you all for looking at my work and have a Happy Christmas!