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Illustration for Mother Jones Magazine A) Mother Jones asked me to illustrate an article about the Bush administration's handling of the FDA and the subsequent exodus of disillusioned workers. After reading through the entire article, I came up with a litany of thumbnails, but refined the concept and image until I ended up with a single sketch. B) Since color played an important symbolic role in the piece, I sent a color sketch to the AD. C) A clean line drawing that was drawn with graphite on bristol board, transferred via lightbox. D) A progress shot of the illustration in photoshop. I'm mostly figuring out values rather than color, blocking in gradients and highlighting certain areas to create the proper effect. At this stage, I've already scanned in some watercolor texture. Final) Even though my sketches tend to be pretty tight in terms of concept and composition, I try to leave space for exploration and invention in the finish. The giant pills, the 'patriotic' background, and the masks were all decorative touches that I came up with in the final moments in order to drive the concept home.