Editorial Illustration

A Picture is worth a thousand words...

Project Overview

They say a picture is worth a thousand words—so how exactly do editorial illustrations effectively communicate big concepts? This project explores a creative process for designing and executing conceptual illustrations, as well as developing and refining skills in Adobe Illustrator. I set about to structure a project that would allow me to identify a process that could be applied across subject matters. The parameters of the project involved researching the methods employed by several well-known illustrators, adapting the process for my own application, and then creating a series of illustrations for current articles from popular news sites.

Time

12 Weeks

Roles

Art Direction
Illustration

Skills

Research
Concepting
Sketching
Illustration

Tools

Procreate
Illustrator
Photoshop

Process

I chose an article by David Frum in the Atlantic called The Founders Were Wrong About Democracy. I began by reading the article and taking notes. I highlighted the most important points, and then put the article away, in order to distill the main arguments and refer only to the most important points. The basic gist of the article is that the founders set up a system with all those checks and balances because they were terrified of a supposedly ignorant majority who wouldn’t be able to make good decisions for themselves.

I did some mind mapping to help me think laterally, but I already had a few ideas percolating. I kept coming back to the imagery in this line from the article which said, “It is where minority rule bites deepest…” I did some thumbnail sketching to help me focus on composition and layout, before moving on to a refined sketch.

Color

For this illustration, color was really important. I wanted it to evoke America, but for my normal style I need some variety of color, especially for my texture process. I usually find that I need some contrast in hue and value to build an illustration successfully. I discovered Adobe colors, and searched for the keyword “America” to find something that felt red, white, and blue-ish. I combined a few options from the palettes I found to create something that felt antique Americana.

Finalizing

I brought my illustration into Illustrator and got my shapes all sorted out. This took quite a while, especially working on the crowd of people. I kept everything in many well-labeled layers. I exported it as a layered file and opened it in Photoshop to start adding texture. Finally, I mocked it up to see what it would look like in the context of an Atlantic article.

Final Process

I followed this process, from reading and note taking, to brainstorming, to thumbnailing and sketching for each piece in this collection of editorial illustrations. This process has been so helpful that it has become my standard practice for all illustration work.

Motherhood

It's been over a year in this pandemic, and I'm tired. Lots of us are tired. Moms get stuck with a lot. My friend shared an article by Pooja Lakshmin from the New York Times, and I knew I needed to illustrate this article.
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The main concept for this image is that it makes literal what feels figurative. The masked mother is sheltering her child with an actual coin because she can't quit her job (or doesn't want to!) even if it would be safer for her child to be home. Meanwhile, she is supporting the weight of a business man on her shoulders.

Up in Smoke

The article I picked for this illustration is a Slate article called To Make Cannabis Green, We Need to Grow It Outdoors by Evan Mills. I haven't followed this aspect of the cannabis industry, and I was absolutely blown away by some of the facts. Did you know that in Colorado, the cannabis industry emits more CO2 than its coal industry? All the marketing around cannabis is that it's so green and has all these health benefits, but it turns out that indoor factory farming is just incredibly energy heavy.

The main concept is that the smoker is inhaling factory smoke, and the smokestack smoke is wrapped around the earth. She's a stoner and looks the part, but what she's inhaling isn't as green as it appears.

It's Britney

In the 90s and early 2000s, viewers, photographers, editors, and directors fueled an intense glee in watching celebrities falling apart. But in 2014, Monica Lewinsky started to take back her narrative. Jessica Bennett's article in The New York Times is about the Britney documentary but also it is a reflection on how society treated celebrity as a whole.

The main concept for this illustration is a woman looking in the mirror. What she sees reflected back is not her own image, but the famous moment when Britney Spears was photographed shaving her head. It's done in a pop art style to underscore the point of pop culture influencing daily life.