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The Pope for Time

MAY 28, 2010
In 1989 I did my first cover of Time.  That cover was with Rudy Hogland as the Art Director and I could only hope I'd get to do another.  In the years that followed I did many covers for Arthur Hochstein and some for Joe Zeff.  When Arthur left Time this fall I wondered if my run had ended, if Time would move on?  My last cover was Sonia Sotomayor last year.  A couple of days ago D.W. Pine, the now head Art Director at Time asked if I could do a cover.  
It was pretty straight forward; paint the Pope from the back.

I had a pretty good reference shot that lacked some focus and my job was to make an image that could run.  I asked if I could go right to finish and D.W. said yes.  I worked non-stop for many hours and finished around mid-day on Tuesday.
(I had until Wednesday but I had another job due…you know the drill).

I think the cover is powerful and am so thankful to Time and D.W. for continuing my relationship with Time and their covers.  It's a relationship I cherish.

Since I started doing covers for Time, I've seen the magazine redesigned several times, always well done.  For this lasted redesign I did the first cover last year, however I had yet to do a cover with the birth of the iPad.
At midnight I checked it out and there it was, my first iPad cover.

As for the Catholic church, sorry always worked for me.


By the way, I knew how to paint the sequins on the Pope's garment via a lesson painting several pieces for the USPS with my Judy Garland stamp.
They're easy and it is funny that both Judy Garland and The Pope find sequins the go-to look.


© 2024 Tim O'Brien