Michael Vick portrait illustration for ESPN and a few of the making-of sketch process below.
AD Eric Paul.
Michael Vick portrait illustration for ESPN and a few of the making-of sketch process below.
AD Eric Paul.
Illustration for a piece in the The Los Angeles Times on how Los Angels became synonymous with noir and crime writing. Incredibly fun to work on and a great series of historical dots to connect.
A few sketches below on different approaches to deadly encounters across the city. Thinking of the great Raymond Chandler quote “The streets were dark with something more than night.”
AD Paul Gonzales
An illustration for The Atlantic for a fascinating piece by Liza Mundy on World War II’s female spies and their unsung contributions to the field of espionage and to the wars ultimate victory.
AD Katie Martin
Illustration for 5280 Magazine feature story about a string of murders in 1860s Colorado Territory and the murky history of colonial racism and revenge that led to the manhunt of Felipe Espinosa and his younger brother, Vivián.
I took a lot of inspiration from the great western painter Frederic Remington for his brilliant, eerie night scenes, and grew the final artwork from rough sketch to drawings to painting in layers as seen below.
AD Dave McKenna
Sketches and final llustration for Quinta Jurecic’s Op-Ed in The New York Times on the many detective novel/film noir perspectives on the crime and corruption documented by the Mueller Report.
AD James Datz
Earlier this year I worked with Art Director Carolyn Perot on a series of illustrations for the May/June 2019 issue of Mother Jones, which is on stands now. The cover story is the first of a two-part investigation by Shane Bauer in Syria and is an insightful, often wrenching account of life on the ground beneath the fog of the Syrian war.
Below are sketches in early development stages, working with the page layouts as they developed was a great help. Also included below are a few illustration influences I looked to on this project to help push myself towards bolder shape design and lost-and-found drawing.
Illustration and sketches for The Hollywood Reporter piece “Inside a 'Making a Murderer' Lawsuit and the Hidden Dangers of TV's True-Crime Craze” by Rebecca Keegan. AD Christopher Hawkins.
Illustration for ESPN Magazine. AD Rami Moghadam
Illustration and some development sketch ideas for a feature piece by Tracy Ross on Skiing & Booze for 5280 Magazine. Art Director Dave McKenna
“The Raid” illustrations for a feature story by William Langewiesche on the B-2 Stealth Bomber for The Atlantic. Art Director Paul Spella.
A couple more illustrations from earlier this year for This American Life. The first, above, "Swtiched at Birth," we follow the lives of two families whose daughters were born in the same hospital on the same day in 1951 in Wisconsin. The aspects of shifting crossover/symmetry in their lives jumped out as key to represent in the drawing.
The second piece, "Chip in My Brain," a new episode premiering earlier this year, we follow a seemingly mundane series of events over ten years of childhood as Cody Treybig. The episode is fascinating and unexpected, I highly recommend listening to it. Process sketches below.
Thanks again AD Whitney Dangerfield.
Happy to report this years Communication Arts Illustration Annual includes a piece that I worked on late last year for The Hollywood Reporter.
"Murder, Mayhem and Torture" Off the Sunset Strip" is a true crime piece covering the days and months leading up to the night police apprehended Blake Liebel with the scalped, murdered body of his girlfriend in their Los Angeles apartment.
Below are some of the development process for the final illustration. Rough thumbnail sketches to explore the visual elements, tone and composition, and then from there taking the strongest ones to a tighter final sketch to discuss with the Art Director. Ultimately we went with the drawing of the arm and bed melting into the interior apartment crime scene.
Thanks again to AD Kelsey Stefanson and everyone at Communication Arts.
The latest Jack Reacher film "Never Go Back" is now on Blu-ray, and included with the special edition is an illustrated copy of Lee Child's short story "Everyone Talks" that I had the pleasure of illustrating.
The story is a noir glimpse into the Reacher world, and was a lot of fun to develop with the team at Paramount. Thanks again to Rebecca Johnson and Scott Klein for the opportunity.
I came across a copy of Vault of Shadows this week, the second in The Nightsiders book series that I illustrated for Simon & Schuster, with Art Director Krista Vossen.
Author Jonathan Maberry's second book in the series picks up where The Orphan Army leaves off with young Milo Silk and his friends defending their Louisiana bayou camp from an alien bug invasion.
The Vault of Shadows book dives further into the malevolent Huntsman, so we played with a few different designs and compositions emphasizing him in different panes, though ultimately the dark worked best as an anchor and we kept the darker block beneath the title.
Below is the illustration for The Orphan Army (The Nightsiders Book 1) and a few sketches, which include some of the design elements that became part of the type template for the set.
Thanks again to Krista for the excellent design and spot varnish on the final covers. Both are available now from Simon & Schuster.
Cover illustration for the New York Times Book Review of Caleb Carr's latest crime novel "Surrender New York." Art Director Matt Dorfman and I discussed various ways of representing the forensic science elements of the book. Ultimately, we landed on the fingerprint-as-reflection.
Full page and spot illustrations for WWD Magazine piece on Sycamore Partners’ Stefan Kaluzny and Golden Gate Capital’s David Dominik's competition for the future of the American mall. AD Oliver Yoo.
Illustration for a feature on life threatening outdoor scenarios for 5280 Magazine. The opening piece depicts the scene moments after David Torchia's rafting group accidentally went over an 8-foot dam in the Arkansas River. Sketches below show some different approaches to the spread. The final page layout above by Art Director Dave McKenna.
A few new illustrations I did for AD Alex Spacher at Departures Magazine to accompany six pieces by different journalists on the challenges and benefits of traveling in high-risk destinations.
llustration for The New Yorker review of American Crime Story: The People vs. O. J. Simpson. AD Chris Curry.
A new project I’m very excited about is now out on Wired! I’ve been working with Christopher McQuarrie, the director of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Dylan Kussman on an 8-page graphic novel tie-in with the film which was just released on DVD. The story sheds light on the actions of agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as he tracks the Syndicate around the globe in the six months he spends unseen in the film. The aim of the graphic novel is to provide a nuanced interpretation of the events that transpired moments after being shot, and in that window before the film catches up with Hunt, “six months later.”
I enjoyed the concept of this project, which allowed the narrative to take a turn through sequential illustration and pick back up in the second act of the film. The density of information and events in the story meant that all aspects needed to work in unison to be clear, so color played a significant role in unifying locations and timeframes as well as mood and emotion. The amount of story per page presented a challenge, but was also helpful in that if forced me to pare shots and beats down to the absolute essentials.
Having McQuarrie's entire film so well defined was a huge inspiration. It provided an essential structure for the dots that we were connecting with the drawings, and also set the bar incredibly high in terms of visual style and confidence.
The entire 8 page story is available online at WIRED.com. Thanks again to Christopher McQuarrie, Dylan Kussman, Jodi Wynne, and Kyle Bonnici for the opportunity.