George Steinbrenner killed my NY Observer cover

Well actually not him exactly... his death did.
Last week right when I was almost done with this conceptual portrait of notorious developer Shaya Boymelgreen, for the cover of the New York Observer, news came in of the Yankees owner's passing. Which was much bigger news. Actually, I've been in this business long enough to be totally used to things that happening.

Here's my tight color sketch in the mockup. And the cover that had to replace it.
Kudos to Kathryn Rathke for cranking out that portrait of George in probably less than an hour!




Here's my final art that did run inside for the same budget, thanks Nancy!
We didn't want to make fun of his features so the caricature aspect is toned down and Nancy wanted the buildings in his beard to be subtle, which was really nice to do that way.