I’ve been once again honored to be part of the New York Times magazine. In the yesterday&rsquo

I’ve been once again honored to be part of the New York Times magazine. In the yesterday’s Sunday Book Review insert the illustration you see above was my contribution for the “Manual for Cleaning Women” by Lucia Berlin.

Since I’ve often been asked about my method I’d like to take this chance to speak a little about it. When it comes about doing pieces for magazines and newspapers my process is little different than usual. The sketch I then submit to the AD has to be a little more refined than usual. I most of the time use the following approach to save time (very useful for me as well as for the editor/AD) and be more efficient.

Below are 4 steps from the very first rough to the final stage.

As for me the first raw sketch would already be sufficient. I already see the final art inside that ugly doodle but obviously it’s not clear enough for the Art Director whom I’m going to show it.

That’s why I fix my pencil idea a little, using for that the digital tablet and a fake pencil brush in PS. At this stage I rarely put color but I try to convey the general tone of the final art through subtle black and white shadows. This last part is optional, in this case I need it to let the AD see it’s a night scene. (PS I usually send 3 sketch ideas, this was the chosen one)

Once I have the green light form the AD I need to add one more step. I build a very simple color palette scene following the basic lines of the original sketch. The color palette could be more or less detailed depending on the complexity of the sketch, the mood, the inspiration. It never takes more than 10 minutes to be set though.