First Assignment: RACE

For my first illustration assignment, I chose to an editorial piece on an a great article in the last weeks Newweek, which focused on how babies began at a very young age to discern race and the feelings they have about it. The tricky thing about tackle such a loaded topic as race is, is that it can be looked at from so many different points of view. So, how then, as an illustrator, do I try to create an image that racially sensitive and doesn't add to preexisting stereotypes and archetypes. My goal was to look at the topic objectively and try to arrive at the best possible solution, while balancing the content of the article and the things that we already associate with race and racism in america. It wasn't easy, but I am happy with the results.

Thumbnails:

I normally work up the ideas from the thumbnails in my sketchbook, to work out the concepts further and to work on any compositional problems. Then, I transfer the images from my sketchbook to tracing paper. The last idea is the one I am going to work up to a final piece for next week.