Thursday, July 21, 2011

Willamette Week Cover

TOM - Here's a cover I illustrated for this week's issue of Willamette Week in Portland. The cover story is about this crazy, rich dude who, to make a long story short, has a record of assaulting people and wound up terrorizing his next door neighbor with all sorts of dramatic displays of aggression. The article included accounts of him erecting a large fence, flashing bright lights into his neighbors window while blasting conservative talk radio and chopping down his pool house to then set fire to it. This shit would never fly in New York, just sayin'.

I decided to try and get all those things across in the sketches, feeling that fire, chainsaws and fences were all good elements to making a really dramatic cover. Although the art director and myself were excited about them, the editor felt in might be a little too over the top and 'comicy'. We settled on something a little more simple, while trying to keep it menacing; a creepy neighbor peering over his fence with a suggestion of flashing lights in the background.

Here's a little look at the drawing process and the progression into the colors. I drew the figure and the fence separately so that I could have the option of where to place the fence in the final.

This is what the final art looked like before the logo and text were added.

We also used a variation as an interior opening for the story.

If you're in Portland, go pick up a copy! Thanks for reading!

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