So, this past weekend I had my first illustration in the Washington Post. And, since I just started writing for this "News and Blog" section of my website, I thought I'd put here some of the process sketches for the piece.

The book review spoke to me of the romanticism that Americans have for France, and my first vision was two lovers at a bistro. I still really like this composition (the layering of foreground, middle and back), and may finish the sketch for myself. The other two sketches I also preferred to the one that got picked (the Paris reflection in sunglasses).

A friend reminded me, after looking at the sketches, that sometimes you don't want the image to be too busy (especially for a smaller illo), you want it to be bold. I think, in my heart, I always want to be making full page illustrations full of sumptuous details, but occasionally I could probably benefit from holding back on the minutia and concentrating on simplicity. Anyway, here are the rejected sketches:

This was the accepted sketch:

And the final, I drew the whole girl, but cropped it to the sunglasses for the printed piece:

Thanks to Beth Broadwater at the Washington Post, who was the Art Director for this illustration.