National Geographic Magazine Illustrations

I created these illustrations for the current issue of National Geographic Magazine. Rather than traditionally created botanical illustrations they wanted realistic, very clean, vector graphics to go along with the overall look of the 2 page spread. I was very excited at the opportunity to do this work, as National Geographic is definitely on my list of dream clients.

Sketchbook 5/21/09

Some more excerpts from my sketchbook. Just trying to have some fun and not be so concerned with the results. It keeps me sane to balance the work I labor over with some that is just done to explore.

I noticed something about using the copic gray markers that has been in the back of my mind for awhile. I was always wearing out the # 4, 5, 6, and 7 before any others, so I thought I'd test my suspicion with a full grayscale (below). It turns out that the markers at both ends of the scale are really close in value-- in some I can't see any difference at all. I kind of felt this subconsciously, but it helps me to bring that type of "beneath-the-surface" feeling into concrete understanding (mainly so I don't forget it).

Not to take anything way from the copic markers -- I think they are great -- but you may not need to buy the full scale to do solid value studies.