Communication Arts and American Illustration

Found out a few weeks ago, that I got a piece into the upcoming CA Illustration Annual.
It was for the bimonthly Generations column I illustrate for the NY Times.
This piece was about a young girl, who just couldn't fit in to pop culture, despite trying.
Something I personally related too. Art director was Richard Weigand.

Here are the roughs, the article mentioned Hairspray, Harry Potter and High School Musical.
I'm glad Richard choose the broader more conceptual solution. Richard also asked if gum always needs to be pink? Which got me thinking of a more interesting color palette that would highlight the bubbles, thanks twice Richard!

tighter drawing, composition was a bit tricky, multiple figures aren't my strength...
...and neither is color, so it took more than a few color studies.





This piece below was chosen for the American Illustration site.
It was for a Los Angeles Times Book Review, of the novel "Sunflower" which has femme fatale of sorts as one of the main characters. The art director was Carol Kaufman.

Here's the roughs below, that Carol had to choose from. I like including the roughs for two reasons to show the process of course, but also highlight how important the art director is in the process, from picking the best idea (half of the time I can't decide myself) to defending/selling the idea to editors.