Hemispheres Magazine

2014
December 2013 turned out to be one of the busiest months I've ever had as a working professional. Even though my schedule was packed, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with Hemispheres Magazine. My wonderful agent, Deborah Wolfe, ensured the project details were ironed out so I could focus on the work (one of the many benefits of having a great agent!).
 
For this project, I worked with Claire Eckstrom, an Associate Art Director for Hemispheres, and the experience was such an ideal one. Claire sent me the brief and gave me very clear direction as to what they were looking for. The article (which you can read here), centers on a company which teaches leadership tactics through the study of, and travel to, famous war memorials and locations. The article already had my interest but you can imagine how excited I was when they said I'd be drawing WW2 era paratroopers! 
 
With clear direction and an inspirational topic, I was off. I produced 2 iterations of the concept, both with a focus on dynamic composition and layout. I had a lot of fun working on the sketches, so I had high hopes the finished piece would work well.
Claire chose option A and with that signoff, it was time to bring the color and noise! I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to compose the colors of this image. I worked with a palletized color scheme and focused on using the negative space to frame out key elements of the illustration - in this case, the business man and soldier. It came together quickly once I managed to get the basic values blocked in so the rest was just a matter of finishing out the details.
 
Big thanks to Claire for the opportunity to work on this one! It was a genuine pleasure to work with Hemispheres and I can't wait to do it again!
 
Here are a few closeups:
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