Red & Blue

This past weekend I had an illustration feature in Boston Globe Magazine about how Red Sox fans can find some common ground and an enjoyable vacation in Yankee-zone New York. I didn't end up drawing a single baseball player, but I sure drew a lot of hats! (AND designed a pair of yankees sunglasses!) I have little to no interest in baseball, but I really enjoyed this project because of being able to collaborate with my art director Ryan Huddle.

When Ryan first contacted me, he was looking for a long illo to go along the top of the 2 pages.

When he got the sketches, he liked the first crowd scene and thought it might work better running along the bottom of the page, maybe with some more "I <3 NY" type additions.
From there, i suggested having some times-square-ish buildings running up the sides of the page with NY-centric billboards:

He approved & we were off!
I had a busy schedule at the time and had to pull an all-nighter to finish this one, but I re-discovered 'The Shadow' on Netflix while I worked. Now whenever I look at the final I think of The Shadow and Alec Baldwin, which aren't the worst things to think of I guess.

I was happy with how it came out, but I was REALLY HAPPY when Ryan showed me the final layout with the text he added! SO AWESOME!

One of the thrills of illustration is getting your pictures paired with great design. It's like making a nice dessert and seeing it combined with a delicious meal and then eating it all.