Here’s the final cover for this week’s Santa Fe Reporter that features my illustration, with headline and text in place. I thought they did a really great job with the design on this one - the banner is pretty cool, and the illustration is still the focus, which is nice.

There was a little bit of pressure working on this one, not just because the deadline was super short (just a few days), but apparently Mr. Martin lives in the Santa Fe area, and might actually see it - so capturing a favourable likeness was a priority for me.

Although I like the cropping on the final cover (which is how it looked in the sketches), I wanted to do a big version for myself, if only for posterity, which I’ve included here (and was already posted, sorry for the duplication). I’ve also included the black & white line drawing, for those who might be interested.

I illustrated the cover of this week’s Seattle Weekly. The feature story is about an ex-cop who sold piles of seized guns. And yes, that’s really what his moustache looks like! Drawing that ‘stache was pretty much the best part of this job.

Aside from the final cover, I’ve included the clean version (without type), and the original digital inks. This is actually the first pro illo I’ve done from start to finish in Manga Studio - which was a bit challenging under the gun (I usually go with the safest route when deadlines are at stake), but it was worth it. I think I’ll be sticking with this method from now on!

My illustration for the cover of the Santa Fe Reporter’s Dec. 19th issue, and the follow-up to the Dec. 12th issue (which I also illustrated, see previous blog post).

An homage to the poster for “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” replacing the city for a destroyed Santa Fe, and the attacker for New Mexico’s governor.

Shown here are the final cover with type, the black-and-white line drawing, the finished illustration without type, and a detail from the image.

I had the awesome opportunity to illustrate two more covers for the Santa Fe Reporter over the last few weeks! They had the idea that they wanted the two covers to relate to each other. The first cover (last week’s issue, from Dec. 12th) would show Santa Fe in ruins, where the feature would be about the Mayan doomsday thing.

The second cover (this week’s issue, for Dec. 19th) would pull back to reveal that the source of the destruction is actually New Mexico’s Governor. I’ll upload my illustration for that cover soon.

I’ve posted the original, clean version of last week’s cover, along with some details I’m proud of, and the b&w line art. Sorry for the low quality on the finished cover with the type in place, once I have a high-res version, I’ll swap it in. That said, a lot of the finer detail got covered up by the type in the final cover, so I kind of prefer the clean version.