From sketch to final: 'Georgia Music Magazine' edition

Recently, I had the opportunity to work on an illustrated spread for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame's magazine. It was on a serious topic of drug addiction within the music scene and focused on a female who is incarcerated on drug charges. Her only escape are the brief moments where she gets to play her guitar.

Due to not having the final draft of the story, the art director didn't know if the illustration would be a single page or a full spread. In my three initial thumbnails, I did both versions.




The AD chose the idea of the woman playing the instrument and breaking through the dark clouds. The heavy, dark negative space of the clouds would allow plenty of room to knock out the header.


For the final, the AD thought the illustration would look better to flip it. Luckily the piece had no reason it couldn't be. This is a scanned spread from the magazine (so the colors may be a little off), but hopefully it'll catch the reader's eyes.

Thanks Lisa and Robert!