New Illustration

This was to be a cover and page and a half spread for the OC Weekly, but it was killed due to lack of space. It's a shame because I think it's one of my best pieces, but it at least was published in the online version of the article Baghdad Diaries. The woman at the table is Eileen Padberg, a "Republican political consultant from Laguna Niguel until two years ago. That's when she dropped everything on something like a lark, but more sober given that it involved moving from the relative tranquility of Orange County political infighting to a real, brutal killing zone, to help Iraqi businesswomen."



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The Editor knew exactly what he wanted-Padberg at the center of a table in Iraq with a character representing the major 'groups'; civilians, soldiers, detainees, clerics. We decided a 'Last Supper' approach would be the best way to have all characters facing the viewer. Everything was handled in this one sketch with virtually no changes.

click to enlarge

The only major change I made was to the American soldier, from flipped out to a more pensive just-been-through-some-shit look. To get the right texture for his hair and the dirt on him I sketched in pencil on a piece of tracing paper and added it over the coloring in Photoshop. I also added a myterious hand on the shoulder of the General, looking at his map of Iraq as blood begins to soak into it.