Spring Books

Nation editors John Palattella and Christine Smallwood thought something involving seeds might work for this new spring books 08 cover, so after sketching some things out we eventually arrived at the idea of giving each contributor their own seed packet. The hot peppers were reserved for the most critical of all the pieces.
Like many of the last illustrations I've done, this was made by combining layers of paintings and textures in photoshop. The lettering was also done by hand and scanned in, still pretty close in appearance to a design font but I think doing it by hand warmed it up a little. The rendering of the fruits and vegetables needed to be a little more realistic than the rest, I thought, to contrast the big graphic shapes and provide areas that hold your attention a little longer.

Boxed In

New illustration for The Nation's June 2, 2008 issue.
The article, titled "Boxed In" and written by Peter C. Baker, deals with voting reform and questions the fairness of the voting process.
This was done mostly by collaging layers of different layers of watercolor, ink drawings (my own), and fragments of old etchings (found). I put it all together in photoshop.
Editors: John Palattella and Christine Smallwood

A Deeper Black

This image of Barack Obama was done for the May 19th, 2008 issue of The Nation, for an article titled "A Deeper Black" written by Ta-Nahesi Coates.
The piece deals with race, and argues that Obama's essential power has made old notions of identity and race obsolete. In the illustration, I was thinking about how the color itself could shift and blur beyond the form, to show that the colors of the portrait only vaguely define his likeness.