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R Kikuo Johnson

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"Spotlight" film review: The New Yorker

↑ The New Yorker's Review of the film, Spotlight.

↑ Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruff€alo, and Brian d’Arcy James play Boston Globe reporters in Tom McCarthy’s film.

Art Direction: Chris Curry.

tags: New Yorker, illustration, spotlight movie
categories: In Print, editorial illustartion, magazine illustration
Friday 11.06.15
Posted by Reid K Johnson
 

Mission Impossible

 

↑ The New Yorker's Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation film review.

 

↑ Unused Sketches.

Art direction: Chris Curry.

tags: New Yorker, Tom Cruise, aerial, airbus, airplane, illustartion, mission impossible, rogue nation
categories: In Print
Friday 10.16.15
Posted by Reid K Johnson
 

Zadie Smith Fiction

This week, the drawing below accompanied Zadie Smith's new fiction, "Permission to enter" in the New Yorker. As a fan of hers, this was a joy to work on.

The final art as it was printed.

 

One of many alternate concept sketches.

Art Direction: Chris Curry

tags: New Yorker, Sketches, Zadie Smith, feature, illustration
Tuesday 07.31.12
Posted by Reid K Johnson
 

"The Proxy Marriage"

I recently had the pleasure of working on an illustration to accompany a lovely short fiction by Maile Meloy in the New Yorker.

 

The editor, Chris Curry, sent me the layout above and suggested a dyptic with two separate scenes.

 

I typically sketch until I have two or three decent concepts or until the sun is rising and I can't keep my eyes open. The three sketches above begun as very loose pencil sketches which I scanned and further developed in photoshop with a wacom tablet.  After submitting these concepts, Chris suggested trying an eight-panel composition...

 

Sketch approved! One minor tweak to the first panel...

 

I usually do a quick digital color study before I jump into the final.

 

At this point, I turn the black lines of my color sketch faint yellow and print out the sketch on a tabloid sized piece of bristol board. The yellow ink, barley visible in the photo above, serves as my "pencils." I still use traditional media for inking: real brushes, nibs, and India ink. As you can see above, a fair amount of editing takes place during this stage as well.

 

Next, the color gets added back in digitally, and, presto.

 

tags: In Print, Maile Meloy, New Yorker, Sketches, feature, illustration, process, the Proxy marriage
Thursday 05.17.12
Posted by Reid K Johnson
 

New Yorker "Spots"

Regular readers of the New Yorker will be familiar with the weekly "spots:" a series of small, usually black and white illustrations scattered throughout the text of the entire issue.  This has always been one of my favorite features of the magazine, so I was honored to when editor Françoise Mouly asked me to take a stab at it.  She suggested the theme of hoodies in memory of Trayvon Martin.


tags: New Yorker, Spots, Trayvon Martin
categories: In Print
Tuesday 04.10.12
Posted by Reid K Johnson
 

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