Good Is Dead.

So I was hired by genius art director Nicholas Blechman to do the cover for the June 28 New York Times Book Review, for a treatise on the history of the depiction of the Almighty Himself, The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. The review, by Robert Bloom, starts out with the sentence ‘God has mellowed.’ It goes on to chronicle how this came about and that He was depicted as much sterner and meaner in the ancient Hebrew Bible.

I instantly got the idea: the hand of God about to throw a lightning bolt down at Earth from on high, but it would be a plush stuffed toy version. I was naturally thinking of a photograph. Nicholas instantly got the idea approved and set about trying to make it happen. He hired the wonderful Jennifer Lew to make the lightning bolt out of felt, and she did a terrific job. Then she photographed someone holding it against the blue sky and… It just didn’t work. Not that it was her fault, it was just too hard to stage it properly.

At that point time was running out, and Nicholas said, ‘You keep sending me sketches of how you want it to look, why don’t you just draw it?’

To which my response was, ‘Because I’m a lousy draftsman’ (actually what I said was much cruder).

He begged to differ, and so I went to, gulp, work. I felt like I was a sophomore in college again.

Anyway, after about 6 drafts, I finally got it a point where hopefully it’s not embarrassing. And somehow along the way the lightning bolt morphed from a stuffed toy to a water balloon. I have no idea why. But hopefully it at least gets the point across.

Many thanks to Nicholas for giving me the chance, and to Jenn for giving it a shot. So to speak.

lol All that worry and it still came out beautifully! You’ve gotta both love and hate days like that.

water balloon? i think it would be funny if you colored it like a sausage. but that’s just how my mind works.

I think the water balloon is a much more effective metaphor. Awesome, all the same.

The ART of communicating ideas effectively is not always easy. What makes it successful is when the solution is simple and clear. You just get it.

I love this illustration. I’m glad that you sketched right to final product. It’s brilliant.
Thanks for inspiring.

I personally believe, you might say me fundamental or give me any name, but I strongly believe that neither of them are good at all, infect no metaphoric picture can’t do the trick, and we should avoid such things.

really gud Google