Working for the formidable Creative Director SooJin Chun Buzelli of PlanSponsor magazine is always a pleasure. She has an amazing way of cutting through the muck and putting the heart of the content into a one or two line synopsis and asking the illustrator to do what they to best.

this particular article is about asking retirement industry professionals to look at “10 things your are (probably) doing wrong”

the piece was running on the cover and also being used on an interior spread, so i wanted to see if there was a way to do a bit of a reveal, where the spread unveils a bit more information then the covers allows.

here were the initial concepts:

these fellas are just plain wrong, my intention was that they made the number 10 but SooJin thought it best that these ‘gentlemen’ not be on the cover, completely understandable.

i know the empty pool concept isnt original, but i was drawn to the composition along with the confident and relaxed expression on the diver’s face.

this guy needs no explanation. this was the concept that was picked, but he looked to be skipping instead of running which of course is a bit more dangerous, so these sketches came next.

the 3″ scissors were custom built out of copper scrap:

Thanks to SooJin for a sharp project.

Being one of the widest circulated publications in Europe, Der Spiegel, has been on my radar even before I saw the art director Stefan Kiefer speak at ICON2 over 10 years ago. Needless to say, getting a call to do the October 17th cover for them was an honor.

The cover story is about over-scheduled kids. Being a father of 3 I am aware of this and sometimes catch slack and odd glances from parents when they find out that my kids aren’t in 5 afterschool activities. I am a firm believer in kids having time to be kids. Some folks see downtime as wasted time, but for me when I see what the kids can do when their imaginations are allowed to roam, I dont see it as wasted time at all.

Stefan was upfront with me that the editors are tough to please, and he was right. I love a good challenge and am delighted to add this cover to my resume.

here are a few of the sketches and progress shots of the piece:

the initial concept sent from Mr Kiefer

these are my versions of the concept:

the girl with the backpack turned out to be very close to a cover on the same subject 10 years ago, only that time it was a boy.

so I proposed that we illustrate the piece without all the stuff and focus on what the kid doesn’t have time to do:

they liked the concept, but felt it too sophisticated for the cover, understandable.

so the girl with her face down was the one we decided to run with.

once the final was complete, the girl appeared too injured, which was the wrong message, so I was asked to revise her face and head so as to look burdened but not hurt and to make her slightly more ‘realistic’

so here is a revised sketch to show the girl not hurt, but burdened.

and after a couple more revisions, and the fact that the cover was bumped a week because of a timely news story… the piece ran earlier this week.

thanks to Barbara and Stefan for a memorable project.

this project for the October cover of The Progressive focused on the unseen, interworkings of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual conference”How corporations hook up with your state legislators”

the art director, Nick Jehlen, told me that there were two ways that this piece could be approached. one was to focus on the fact that there is a heavy ‘being’ that controls how some legislators write particular legislation. sort of a master and puppet relationship. the other approach could be that the conference is described as a dating service that ‘connects’ corporations with legislators that can fit their needs.

here are the roughs i proposed:

Nick was drawn to the fourth idea, and it was the chosen one.

i think they look like they were meant to be together. i like how they both have one hand in their pocket. and the guy’s pinky finger sticking out, those details give me a kick!

thanks to Nick Jehlen for a delightfully dark and humorous subject.

**also, there is an interview with musician and activist Steve Earle in this issue.