She's Gone,
posted: March 21, 2011
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what went wrong? This was a very cool assignment that had art director support but other folks thought that a stock photographic solution was needed. It was a book cover for a fiction about mad sexual romping with prostitutes, addiction and murder. I tried my best to land the final art and even created a simplistic color comp for their catalog. Title's have been removed to protect the innocent.
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Gérard DuBois March 21, 2011
A lot of great solutions Mark.
Too bad it did not work out.
Would make a nice serie.
Ellen Weinstein March 21, 2011
That's a shame! A really nice image and cool sketches. Curious to see what prostitute images stock has to offer.
Nick Ramos March 22, 2011
I love this... and want to hang it in my studio!
Tim OBrien March 22, 2011
What a solid selection of sketches. I see you enjoy your day job.
Victor Juhasz March 22, 2011
Great work here. The sketches work as a group and individually. The top piece is a gem. I like the framing around the figure.
Leo Espinosa March 22, 2011
Wha? Maybe the top one doesn't read addiction and murder but many of your sketches do.
Your work is perfect for book covers, sir.
Larry Ross March 22, 2011
Great batch of sketches, Richard, and the finished piece is excellent.
Greg March 22, 2011
Nothing says literary like stock photography.
Robert Saunders March 22, 2011
Great image. That they didn't think it—or any of the others—fit doesn't diminish its quality. Happens all the time...I know!
BTW some of these are very funny and sexy.
Greg Clarke March 22, 2011
Love this one. There's just no accounting for the capriciousness of the approval process.
Richard Downs March 22, 2011
Hey folks, thank you so much for all of the nice comments. Yes, I really do like my day job and this assignment in particular so it was a bummer when it didn't go to final. Although the art director was on my side all the way to the end the words, "Whimsical and cartoony" finally killed the finish. No matter how much I tried to explain that these were sketches and not finished pieces it didn't help my case. Oh well. The experience has me wondering how many artists can actually make sketches that command attention and contain the subtleties of a finished piece of art?
Douglas Fraser March 22, 2011
I'm late, but I do echo the above sentiments. Keep those naughty drawings going.
Adam McCauley March 22, 2011
Wow Dick, these are all so great. Stock photography??? Man, what a shame.
Jim Paillot March 23, 2011
Richard, I love this piece. I imagine it will be in one of your gallery shows in the future. I do wonder what the client thinks of the final art at this point. It is certainly not "cartoony".
Harry March 23, 2011
These are all great little drawings.
How does one solve a problem with prostitutes, mad sexual rompings, murder and drugs----with stock??
Rob Dunlavey March 23, 2011
I think that they even considered illustration is a step in the right direction. It's too bad your work didn't fit with their vision.
I've sometimes discovered that I might really click with an art director who is steering the project in a sympathetic (to me) direction. Later (once the job has been emasculated or killed) I find out that said art director was trying to "educate" their boss who simply didn't have the taste or interest to use an illustration.
Your comp (which is very handsome and true to you) has a William Hogarth quality and would go well with a book that was a farce or had that sort of literary, tongue-in-cheek perspective. My guess is they want some startlingly cropped Photoshop treatment of anonymous imagery (like so many other covers). You fought the good fight; onward and upward!
Richard Downs March 24, 2011
Hey guys, thanks again for all of the comments. The art director fought the good fight and I was just there enjoying the ride. I don't know how stock will solve this but my colored piece was only a color comp, I was prepared to do a full color Monotype which would have looked great and been a piece of art and not a cartoon.
Bill Mayer March 24, 2011
I am always trying to figure out how to win a fight like this, so many great directions not to end up with a medal contender.What a great series of drawing ,love them all.So many great Ideas...You should find some other way of publishing them, just too good to let them sit on the studio floor.
Joel Armstrong March 24, 2011
Great solution(s)! Love the series. Maybe you gave them to much to think about, I'd have a hard time choosing.
marcellus hall March 24, 2011
great work!
jon conrad March 24, 2011
Typical comment from a not-so-sophisticated Editor
great stuff Dick ya know I am a fan!
jeffdodson March 24, 2011
screw the book cover, make it a big poster...i like all the sketches just as they are...i keep envisioning all the little ones just as they are but within the big one as the little windows...so she big sexy bloody godzilla-ish first reading and the activity in all the windows as mayhem second/third reading...i even like the idea of the b&w vs color and line vs solid and transparent vs opaque and fragmented vs whole all in one piece...ok, i'm rambling...main point...i like
(ps...my first concert was hall&oates)
Alan Dubinsky March 24, 2011
Another example of 'Marketing' throwing the baby out with the bath water. Didn't need to 'show' final product effect, your numerous monotypes speak volumes. You can lead a horse to water, but...
