We had some snow in Seattle on the Monday before Thanksgiving — a rare thing around here. That afternoon I was at Ryan McVay’s photo studio for January’s Quote Unquote portrait, and between setups I’d head to the window to watch the snow pile up. After 15 years in the desert climate of Las Vegas, I turn into a little kid at even the thought of snow. When we finished our shoot I ran outside to write my name in it.
The snow basically crippled the city for the next 24 hours or so, and I heard stories of commutes that normally take 20 minutes lasting for over four hours. My own bus commute, which normally takes between 15 and 35 minutes, took two hours.
The next day, there were lots of businesses in my neighborhood that didn’t even open. One pet store had free “emergency food supplies” at its front door, with a handwritten note saying that it would be closed that day. Seattle’s hills and bridges are just no match for a little snow.
I ended up working from home that day — something I rarely do, because my needy dog constantly whines and begs for attention if I’m on the computer for any length of time.
It was a long and frustrating day of trying to come up with concepts for January’s 52 Great Weekends cover. But about 14 hours into it, I finally hit on something I was feeling good about. I sketched this mock-up in Photoshop, using a mouse. (My old Wacom tablet broke when I moved from Vegas to Seattle in 2009, and I hadn’t yet replaced it. Thankfully, my girlfriend bought me a new one this Christmas.)
Here’s the final, illustrated by Mick Wiggins.
To keep us within our budget, I illustrated or photographed six of the ten art elements in this month’s Mudroom myself. Here’s my photo illustration for an article about airport security X-rays.
(My poor man’s CGI is actually just a modified stock photo of a mannequin.)
One of my favorite things in this issue is the yoga feature. For the photos, I cast expert yoga practitioners to hold what were in some cases extraordinarily difficult poses in otherwise mundane settings. I hired Michael Clinard to pull off these great shots, whose energy I tried to mirror in my type treatment.
To show just how deceptively difficult that last pose is, check out these funny scouting photos Michael shot.
And finally, here’s Ryan McVay‘s Quote Unquote portrait I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Editor Matt Halverson came up with the great idea to have this science fiction author (and sword enthusiast) shaving his bald head with one of the swords in his collection.
Actually, we went with this concept only after a different one fell apart — but I like this one much better.
(P.S. That’s my bathrobe he’s wearing.)
