This was a recent illustration I did for California Magazine, to accompany an interview with noted sci fi author, Ursula K. Le Guin. I have to say I hadn't read any of her works prior to receiving this assignment, but after researching her, and reading the excellent interview, I was very intrigued and found her to be a fascinating person. The research and the drawing were so much fun to do that this became easily my favourite illustration that I've done this year.
The final art was drawn in ink and composited digitally to make the image (the red and the black parts of the image were drawn separately and merged in photoshop).
Just for fun, I thought I'd post all the various research notes, concept thumbnails and rough sketches that I made in my sketchbook on the way to creating the final art. They're shown below, with all the silly reminders to myself about approaching deadlines left unedited. I hope you'll find them of interest.
