Monday 12 March 2012

Christopher Hitchens for The Skeptic Magazine

This started out as just a piece for myself, I'd seen some really wonderful portraits recently (many of Steve Jobs who also died recently) and so I wanted to do something along similar lines for Christopher Hitchens who died last December. I sent an earlier version to The Skeptic Magazine to see if they might want to use it if they were doing a piece on Hitch any time, and they thought it good enough to be the next cover. It needed a fair amount of work (in fact it probably still does if I'm honest), mainly to fit the magazine cover layout, but now I'm pretty pleased with how it looks :) If anyone would like an A3 print of the painting I'll make them to order for £15.00 inc p&p, so just send me an e-mail if you'd like to get a copy. The new copy of the magazine also comes with a poster of Crispian Jago's amazing Modern Science Map!

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Skeptic magazine cover - John Ronson

This illustration was FUN.

The team from The Skeptic Magazine told me they wanted Jon Ronson on the cover and that his new book The Psychopath Test was just out (it's a really good book, grab it if you can). This idea came straight away an I did a sketch, thinking that they'd think it was a bit 'out there' and I'd have to tone it down or come up with something else. Nope - they liked it and so I went for it!

The idea is pretty simple, Jon is in a school classroom having just taken a 'psychopath test' and the teacher is handing him back his score sheet with a 100% mark. The slightly mad bit is that he's dressed AND made up as The Joker from The Dark Knight - it was a bit of a challenge to caricature someone and then give them full face make up of someone totally different. I was worried the likeness would vanish under the white make up and red lipstick. I think it came out ok though. There are lots of other little things in it too which I really enjoyed putting in. Can't wait to do the next one if they still want me!