Cover for the Weekly Standard

Well, I'm proud to say that I just did my first cover for The Weekly Standard! This is a magazine that I have wanted to work with for a long time now, many of the artists that I have inspired me in the past as well as in the present have done and still do covers for the Standard, so it's a great honor for me. Also, I LOVE drawing and painting political figures, there's so much going on in they're faces, I love the themes as well.

This piece was originally commissioned as a full page illustration, not as a cover. But because of unfortunate events in Pakistan, my illustration was now just right for this week's cover. The illustration was actually for next week's issue, so I was given a portrait to work on for this week's issue. When the decision was made that my illustration would be the cover this week instead of an illustration for next week, my portrait was yanked. I had already sketched out the portrait as well as began a quick block in with color, so I sent it to the staff and even though it was only a study or sketch, they decided to run with it. I didn't mind because it has a cool feel to it, partly painted with the sketch showing through, looks like art to me!

So all and all I did the cover as well as inside portrait in two and a half days worth of work. By looking at the sketches you can see how fast I had to work, the Al Qaeda character for example was sketched in about 3 to 5 minutes, half way through the painting they wanted an angry Al Qaeda in the background so I took a couple pictures of my friend James and roughed it out!