My Sunday morning started with a hunt for a copy of The New York Times. Almost as hard to find as a book store these days. Always a thrill to see things in print, not just as a social media miniature the size of my phone. I guess I'm just an analog dinosaur myself; hanging on to that thrill of seeing things in print.
A couple weeks ago I had an email from our usual art director over at The New York Times, Debra Bishop, with a fun new project and an introduction to Ken DeLago who would be my art director for this project. Deb was taking a much deserved break for the holidays.They had a pretty tight comp of a public restroom stall with a pair of Dino legs visible from under the stall. A T-Rex taking a poop. How fun could that be.
I started with the normal thumbnail exploration, trying more than a few alternate directions, different angles of the stall. Blowing the T-rex up huge, as if you could fit him into a bathroom, much less a bathroom stall. Some fun directions including a t-rex taking a dump in the pose of Rodin's “The Thinker.”
The final was a combo of traditional airbrush (the feet) and a digitally created bathroom stall. It was just so clean, it just felt like dirtying it up like a real New York subway bathroom made sense and added a little humor. Stains and trash thrown about. More graffiti on the door. One last thought was to have a little roach sitting on his foot, his shadow mimicking a T-Rex's short arms. Funny.
I think they felt it kind of confused the message or it was just too complicated. So, nix the shadow. Nix most of the graffiti. Lose the trash on the ground and the splatters... One big splashy “Dinos Rule!” and that 's it. We ended up keeping the trash and the splatters in the end.
“Oh maybe you could try adding a tail.” Which I have to admit did help it read as a dinosaur... (This addition ended up being scrapped as well)
It was a blast working on this one. And the cover turned out pretty cool! Much thanks to Debra Bishop and Ken DeLago for a fun project to start the year off with.
Keep up with The New York Times For Kids on Instagram!
