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Under Preasure...

OCTOBER 4, 2011


 
It’s always nice to ease back into work with one of SooJin’s illustrations. We had a great break on holiday at the cottage in Canada. Great to unplug a bit, turn down a few illustrations jobs and just get lost. Now that we’re back, Jumping right into the thumbnails is a great way to get back in gear. This article was about the squeeze Euro companies are feeling on their benefits and retirement plans. The first round of thumbs really dealt more with variations centered around retirees having the earth eroded out from under them ( 27). I set it aside for lunch and when I came back to it I liked these directions much better. Sometimes the most obvious directions work the best (28).

Final sketch before I started airbrushing...© bill Mayer 2011

 
I tried several background variations before settling on this grey. It seemed to set the mood better than a blue sky. I likes the way it worked as a neutral pallet. The color gave the piece a bit more of a somber feel and attitude to such a silly concept.
Desk top copies of work in progress showing simple steps adding background...trees, hillside...

 
After transferring the image to illustration board I do the airbrush part of the illustration . In the past I would have done the sky and background as well, but now that they have to be delivered digitally I do a lot of the backgrounds a finishing in Photoshop. Tried a blue to yellow transition in the sky ,just was not working...I liked keeping the pallet warm but it just felt like it needed to bit moody... so I added a little dark grey to somber it up a bit.... added a little hill...trying to keep it very simple....Added some shading on the hill...feels like it needs a little depth and dark areas in the bottom... Shadow is helping...I used the path for the original outline and just transform / distort / warped it to fall along the hill top... added a few more hills to give it some depth.... and some simple trees to help add some dark areas along the bottom... a little noise in the background to match to texture of the airbrush.... I always leave a ton of bleed just in case need more room for type....Added some highlights and tweaking to the eyes so they showed up better... Pretty much done now just a few little tweaks....Just need to send it off and get some feed back from Soojin...
I played around with a little side lighting but seemed to be getting a bit confusing and made the figure look blurry, so i deleted it....

Much clearer, added a shadow to set the face back a bit and take the focus off of him...

Pretty much done now just a few little tweaks....Just need to send it off and get some feed back from Soojin...

SooJin had said that the article had been put on hold for some reason . Rarely do you get a chance to look at something again after you finished. I opened up the file the other morning and played around with darkening up the backgrounds. I like the feelling this gave the illustration and thought it might work better with the type as well so I sent off to SooJin to get her take on it. Altogether I think it made for a stronger cover design.
This article was put on hold a delayed. So after it sat around for a week or so I decided to take another look at the background...

 
The inside spread , nice clean design. SooJin always comes through with such great design and direction . It’s always such a joy to work on these projects.
 
The inside spread , nice clean design. SooJin always comes through with such great design and direction . It’s always such a joy to work on these projects.
Here's a copy of the cover I snagged off the internet version of Plansponsor. I really lover the way the type is interwoven with the illustration. NIce and clear...It held up prettwell even on the webversion on my IPhone.Although I would certainly prefer leafing through the magazine leasurely...
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