July 30, 2009

Oh, the nerves...


My sources tell me that the August issue of Louisville Magazine is on newsstands, and another one of my pieces graces the pages of this finely designed periodical.

This time around, we reverted to my "traditional" illustration style (the last assignment was my "sketchbook" style). The story is rather confusing, but I'll do my best to sum it up. Basically, a neurosurgeon's clinic who did surgeries for one hospital (UofL) signed up to do surgeries for another hospital (Norton) without telling UofL. UofL was forced to fire the clinic, and chaos ensued. It boiled down to money and contracts, trying to work for two separate hospitals, etc. The thumnail process for this was longer than usual as the editor, and the art director, and I struggled to find a strong solution that made sense. Some of my thumbnails are below.


We settled on the final thumbnail because it was a straight solution for a multi-layered story. I then proceeded with a final sketch and a quick color study so Kelly could begin choosing colors for the story layout.


For this piece my technique was a combination of a gouache wash, prismacolors, turpentine (used to melt the prismacolor and paint with the waxy pigment), and the bright light coming from the surgical lamps was created using washes of white acrylic with my favorite medium, GAC 100. Here's a closeup of the piece so you can see the texture.



Overall, I'm pleased with the piece, and so is the magazine (which is most important!). I would love to hear what you think, too!

Cheers,

Cat

4 comments:

Sydney Harper said...

I like it a lot! It looks like a good choice for the story. I especially like the quality of the surgical lamp. I'm going to have to get some GAC100 to play with.

Cat Scott said...

Thanks, Sydney! GAC 100 is great fun. You can do it in smooth watered down washes like watercolor, or undiluted for a dry brush type application - which is what I like!

Erika Steiskal said...

Wonderful piece, Cat. You really captured a feeling of drama with your angle and perspective, it really draws me in and makes me want to read the article. Missing you.

Cat Scott said...

Thanks, Erika!