The Jesus Bus Illustrated

The blogging hiatus is over! After finally moving all our stuff over to the new house and subsequently dealing with a broken water heater, I’m back on a regular schedule. So time to recap.

Oil and digital illustration for weekly sevenIllustration for Weekly Seven

For their April Fool’s issue, Vegas Seven entrusted me to convey my thoughts on their article about the Strip Church-Jesus Loves Sin City, free bus rides. When thinking conceptually about the piece, I couldn’t get away from the image my Art Director, Lauren Stewart, had set out in my mind. I tried to concentrate and convey the essence of the piece in a allegorical way, like  Kevin Cornell would do. But I couldn’t steer clear of potentially controversial imagery or interpretation (which is not to say it’s bad but as a relatively newcomer to Wendoh Media, I figured I’d stay safe). I finished the illustration using my Wacom tablet as it was originally slated to be an oil. The under-painting was done with turpenoid-diluted oil based paints,  scanned and used as a base alongside the pencil sketch. I’m happy that they’re happy with it but as I look at it, I can’t help but see things that could’ve been improved before committing. But like my wife says: now you know for next time. Check out the story here.