Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Greatest of All Time


My portrait of Whitney Houston from the second Grantland Quarterly! My illo accompanies an article written by Chris Connelly about his recollections of the singer in her golden era. Thanks to AD Juliet Litman!
Juliet wanted a unique portrait of Whitney, and since the article was all about her domination of the music world, in my sketches I pictured her as some sort of divine presence or warrior queen.

Grantland only prints in B&W and one spot color, so I had to keep that in mind while planning and executing the piece, too. I definitely wanted a gold or yellow as my spot color--a golden bird entourage seemed fitting for a diva!

I had a lovely time watching & listening to a whole playlist of her music videos while working on the sketches and final-- she was a truly talented singer and will be missed.

3 comments:

Andy Christofi Illustration said...

Awesome! Great likeness and a lovely warmth to the portrait.

Caro said...

Fuck'n elegant!

Laurie A. Conley said...

This is a fantastic piece! And the B&W with spot color works great with your design.