Because I submitted a lot of sketches for the cover illustration concepts (previous post: Mr. Lincoln goes to Hollywood (1 of 2)), the people at the Smithsonian magazine asked me to do an additional illustration to accompany the article inside that issue to precede the release of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.
The idea was to depict Abraham Lincoln (the real Lincoln) on the set of a movie.
It would have been too easy if there would have been an existing picture of Abe Lincoln in that pose: matching my sketch.
Of course not: somehow I always seem to pick the “long way home”!
Hopefully there are a lot of images of Lincoln out there and with all of them get the information to create a “new” image of Lincoln.
Here is the illustration in progress.
I asked a very good friend to put on a suit jacket, drove to his house: took a quick digital picture of him next to his dining room table (5 minutes photo shoot) and boom I’m out of there. It’s enough information for me to “make up” Lincoln’s jacket.
Now for the background; pump up the final elements and we’re good to go!
rené milot 