This is the cover illustration I created for the current issue of Directorship magazine.  Each year the Jan/Feb issue deals with predictions for the coming year. By the looks of it, the editors must be feeling a bit ominous in their outlook. I wasn’t given an article so I’m not sure what specifically their concerns were but with the upheaval of the Trump presidency, a recently nervous Wall Street, concerns over North Korea and numerous other things, it’s not surprising.

Instead I was just given a concept and told that it should have a surrealistic—Rene Magritte vibe to it. So I created the first three sketches you see below.

Of the three, the art director, Patricia Smith, liked the one at the lower left best. Initially I had favored the two that show the figure closer up (I think because they looked more like a Magritte painting this way). But I quickly agreed with her. The third sketch not only makes the figure appear more generic but, more importantly, he also looks more vulnerable. She also asked me to lower the umbrella so that the man’s face is more hidden and lost in shadows (as you see in the sketch at the lower right).

There was some concern at this point that the rock could be mistaken for a dark cloud (I suppose because of the umbrella) but I assured Ms. Smith that the final would read as a huge boulder hovering over the figure. The sketches were created in Photoshop and the final was painted in acrylic, then scanned into the computer.

Let’s all hope the year doesn’t turn out to be this bleak. 

(Click on the images to see a larger view.)