Finished.

Adding color.

I had to change the image somewhat in the digital translation. 


What works in black and white presents some limitations when considering color, so I scraped out some of the black areas and digitally added color to enliven the image. 

Another.

Above is the scratchboard base for the illustration about understanding our Afghan enemies by studying our historically adversarial relationship with the former Soviet Union. I later added color digitally. It took me a little too long to work through these.

Finito.

It could have gone on forever, but I needed to finish up. I notice when I publish anything on this blog, the colors lose a great deal of their saturation, so I'm hiking it up a little here in hopes of matching the original.

I fixed the horizon, which seemed lopsided.

Stage Two.

Lightening up and making some decisions about color. I like to improvise.

Stage One.

After many sketches the client and I decided on a refined concept for the cover illustration.

I began the foundation painting, a first layer of darker colors in acrylic over black gesso. 

Finalmente. Un disegno sufficiente.

The sketch which was accepted by the client.