During my tenure at The Washington Post, I would often be assigned to create feature art for the daily business feature or other section fronts. While editorial illustration does not comprise a majority of my professional work, it definitely pushes my creativity in an invigorating way — these illustrations needed to be conceptualized and produced in just a few hours to meet daily deadlines. I chose three of my favorite samples here with some brief background:
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf2.myportfolio.com/d5f67fbd78de6115e1f2b5a0a7fe3823/d7c3c4249bdd8f5959dbdd4e_rw_1200.jpg?h=ece3498d449b52d3b57fb6f5308939db)
MICKEY vs. COMCAST
This illustration was created for a business feature about a hostile bid by Comcast to buy the Disney Company. I quickly settled on Mickey Mouse as the obvious iconic center but wasn’t sure how to pair him with an image representing Comcast (known primarily as a cable TV provider at that time). I asked several colleagues for input. One of them queried, “Do you remember the original 1933 King Kong movie when he fights the giant snake?” Not another word was said and I immediately went to work on Mickey vs. the Comcast Coaxial Boa Constrictor.
This illustration was created for a business feature about a hostile bid by Comcast to buy the Disney Company. I quickly settled on Mickey Mouse as the obvious iconic center but wasn’t sure how to pair him with an image representing Comcast (known primarily as a cable TV provider at that time). I asked several colleagues for input. One of them queried, “Do you remember the original 1933 King Kong movie when he fights the giant snake?” Not another word was said and I immediately went to work on Mickey vs. the Comcast Coaxial Boa Constrictor.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf6.myportfolio.com/d5f67fbd78de6115e1f2b5a0a7fe3823/7a4b63882114ff54faf52562_rw_1200.jpg?h=16610b61f3394f9f9d1a834e1ac2cc02)
IKE AND THE ALIEN AMBASSADORS
Created for the Style section to accompany a piece about a mythical meeting in 1954 between President Eisenhower and space aliens, I tried to capture the outlandish nature of the story by evoking the style of a 1950′s sci-fi movie poster. A black-and- white photo of Eisenhower from 1961 was used as the base. The flying saucers — an homage to the 1951 film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” — were quickly modeled in StrataPro 3D. The final composite was assembled and colorized using Photoshop.
Created for the Style section to accompany a piece about a mythical meeting in 1954 between President Eisenhower and space aliens, I tried to capture the outlandish nature of the story by evoking the style of a 1950′s sci-fi movie poster. A black-and- white photo of Eisenhower from 1961 was used as the base. The flying saucers — an homage to the 1951 film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” — were quickly modeled in StrataPro 3D. The final composite was assembled and colorized using Photoshop.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf3.myportfolio.com/d5f67fbd78de6115e1f2b5a0a7fe3823/e9b712a17e037a8392eb6e55_rw_1200.jpg?h=82eae236a13db914209d6a9af77fb804)
HOME INSPECTION
The concept for this illustration was presented to me by an Assistant Art Director for a real estate feature about home inspections. The base is a stock image of a doctor holding a typical x-ray. I superimposed onto it a 3D house rendering I had created months earlier for a project on home construction.
The concept for this illustration was presented to me by an Assistant Art Director for a real estate feature about home inspections. The base is a stock image of a doctor holding a typical x-ray. I superimposed onto it a 3D house rendering I had created months earlier for a project on home construction.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf4.myportfolio.com/d5f67fbd78de6115e1f2b5a0a7fe3823/f891b1b69ca877dfd2e10556_rw_1200.jpg?h=ece0af1be5a557fb760c4ec7ae027e2a)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf6.myportfolio.com/d5f67fbd78de6115e1f2b5a0a7fe3823/aa54b633b437fc1a1c4c04ae_rw_1200.jpg?h=83e3c41ae5ebc1d20ac9671dfd0dc42d)
Software: Illustrator, Photoshop, StrataPro 3D
© Copyright The Washington Post
© Copyright The Washington Post