December 23, 2008

Prediction


I recently finished up a new spot illustration for FIM Magazine. I've been lucky enough to become the go-to illustrator on Dale Irvin's humor article, which appears every issue, and it's always a blast figuring out how to work his caricature into each piece. 

This month Dale made predictions about the state of the insurance conference planning industry for 2009. My original thought was to have him portrayed as a fortune-teller, looking into the dark recesses of an 8-Ball for his visions of the future. The editors informed me, however, that they had previously depicted him as a fortune-teller, so that was out. Instead, we decided to go with a Ouija board without Dale in the illustration. 

The real fun for me came when I was researching the look of Ouija boards for the illustration and realized that I could still put Dale into the piece by putting his face in the corners of the board with a retro-spooky crosshatching look. And, I think the piece turned out great. I love that moment as an artist when things start out looking a bit run-of-the-mill, then suddenly you get a new idea that send tingles up your spine and makes you chuckle to yourself while doing it. Almost always the sign of the right direction to head in...



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice looking piece! I wish Oprah would by ME a car...