National Geographic Adventure

Hello friends,

I did this a couple of weeks ago for National Geographic Adventure’s David McKenna. The article was about the type of physiological changes that people undergo in moments of extreme stress. Perception of time, acting purely on instinct, and overly jittery nerves are among the effects many people experience.

The opening story was about an American Diplomat at a party in Columbia that gets taken over by terrorists.

These sketches are a lot tighter than what I usually do. I’ve been listening to the biography of Walt Disney lately and his tendency to push for perfection from his artists got me inspired to try harder. You’ll notice that in this first version, he looks an awful lot like Walt–I swear this was unintentional.

Originally I did the lead character on this first illustration as the character described in the story (bearded) The editors at National Geographic Adventure decided that it would be better, though, to go with a more general looking “everyman.” And then, an “everyman” with more of a chin. He looks a bit like George Clooney to me in the final version.

Anyhow, in this particular illustration I was trying to focus on the phenomenon of time slowing down while under extreme stress. To achieve this I wanted to have things like bullets suspended in mid air and lots of pictorial depth. I wanted to show a “moment in time” that I wouldn’t normally illustrate. The goal was something that felt like frozen movement instead of action movement.

I don’t know if I achieved that or if it even makes sense to anyone but me–but that’s what I was going for. Here he is inked. You will note he was put into more casual, cool guy attire before moving on to the color stage.

For colors I felt really clever riffing off the bright red and yellow scheme of the magazine. Later I decided it was stronger without the yellow, and at the advice of super-illustrator Nathan Fox, I got rid of the lighting. The piece evolved into being a lot more film noir than I usually do.

Then he got a tie!

Then his sleeves got lengthened!

In the end the one they went with was with both a tie and long sleeves. However, I will keep the original finish as my portfolio piece because it’s my favorite.

I’m really happy with the job in the end though because I thought the layout that art director David McKenna came up with was pretty sweet. To see the other images you should pick up the magazine when it comes out next month.

later!

Frank