Busy Town
Where we draw a very large, very lively illustration in a very short amount of time.
This issue of Random Orbit is late. A week late, by the semi-weekly calendar I try to maintain. It wasn’t because I didn’t have anything to write about. In fact, I have a running list of things to write about, and by the time I put out the last issue on January 24 I already had a topic picked out.1 But the very next day was the day I got an unexpected email from Anton Klusener, art director at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Anton asked me to draw a picture for him, for the newspaper. He wanted “a large illustration, likely a Philly cityscape, with various activities happening.” A simple request, I guess, but it triggered me just a little. And, it caused me to be late with this newsletter.
Here, let me explain.
When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was any book by Richard Scarry. What Do People Do All Day? Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Richard Scarry’s Best Story Book Ever! I studied his drawings and I looked for Goldbug. Busytown was where I wanted to live when I grew up.
And more or less, that’s what happened. I went through a period in my illustration career, from around 2007 - 2014, of being sort of known for my “busy” illustrations, especially of city scenes. I made busy scenes for puzzles and games, I drew busy ads for The Yellow Pages and another even busier one for a taco restaurant chain in San Diego. And busiest of all, I wrote and drew a series of books called Everything Goes that were like if Richard Scarry and Where’s Waldo had a baby. Drawing these books, in fact, are what caused me to start wearing glasses, and gave me chronic shoulder issues that still affect me today. Every now and then an editor or an art director will ask me to make one of those busy scenes I’m so good at, and it always make me wince a little bit. Don’t get me wrong. I really love drawing these things. But they’re time-consuming and they hurt. So, I’m wary. And when Anton asked for this piece, which was to show various things in Philadelphia that one might do if one is single on Valentine’s Day, there were some things I was concerned about. First, there was the deadline. I had less than two weeks to get this very busy, very large illustration done, and I knew that I wouldn’t even have text to illustrate for several days. Second, sometimes these busy scenes that are specific to a real place tend to end up being maps, and clients often want accuracy. That’s not my jam, man, and I needed to make sure that this was not what Anton was looking for.2
But there were also some things going for this potential job that got me excited. Anton is a smooth-talker. I mean, really. Like the seasoned pros3 that we are, we actually got on the phone and talked about the project. I don’t know Anton, but his voice is very calm, and possibly British-accented. Had he sounded the least bit frantic or paranoid I’d have run far away. Furthermore, the piece was for Valentine’s Day,4 and Anton agreed that we wanted a limited color palette (PINK!). Lastly, Anton picked out two pieces from my past work to use as examples of sort of what he’s going for.
Both are pieces I really like and really enjoyed making, so I knew that we were heading the right direction, and were likely on the same page. So, I said yes, and Anton said go.
That was Friday afternoon, January 26. By the following Monday morning, as I was heading off to class, I was having an anxiety attack. It had occurred to me over the weekend just what I’d bitten off here. I’m working on two books in which I am behind with sketches. I have other books that need to be written. I teach two days a week. I don’t even have text for this assignment! I was telling my students about this situation and I could feel my heart racing. I knew I had to start working on this, somehow. I had to get something done.
Just west of Philadelphia City Hall, dominating the view from where I await the bus, after teaching my class, sits a group of buildings that I’ve often been attracted to. It’s a cluster of old Philly architecture, like the art deco Suburban Station (c. 1930) and new, like the Comcast Center (c. 2008). Here, I took a picture:
This cluster of buildings was actually an inspiration for an earlier illustration I made, back in 2015, for Tinyville Town, and I decided right away it would be the launch-point for this drawing for the Inquirer as well.
I knew that even without text, I needed to create a sketch of some kind. Something that Anton could see and we could make sure we are on the same page. While the text would give me the specific coffee shops and restaurants and other activities that the story would mention, and I would draw little characters doing these activities, I knew that I needed a stage on which to set this scene. On the bus, I drew these very small, very scratchy sketches, just trying to capture the angles and sidewalks and the general how this might go:
I got home and got to work. The next morning, I got this sketch to Anton. I don’t usually send art directors sketches at this stage, but in this case it seemed like a good idea:
Anton liked it. The text came later that day, and with that I was able to draw a more detailed sketch directly on top of this loose one. This part of the process can be tedious. In this case, with this deadline, I knew that I actually couldn’t allow it to get tedious. This was going to have to be right on the first try. Sometimes illustration is like improv theatre, and this was one of those times. Anton got this sketch on Friday, February 3 at 2:15 pm, and two hours later, with very few notes, I had a green light. That almost never happens.
A note about materials. While I deeply love all of my art supplies, I am also somewhat agnostic about them and the various debates about analog and digital. My answer is “whatever, I don’t care.”5 In this case, I can tell you that without my iPad and Procreate, this job would never have happened. For the curious who will inevitably ask me what brushes I used, the sketching pencils are all from True Grit’s Chromograph collection, though customized in a few ways, and the two pens used in the final are the “Beaded Inker” from Retro Supply’s Broken Inker set, and my all-time favorite, “Noisy Nib” from True Grit’s Rusty Nib.
The final art was begun over the weekend and completed on Tuesday, a day before it was due. Here it is in context with the text and layout, since that’s where it belongs and where it looks best.
The main thing I was going for with this illustration was to create the ‘feel’ of what anyone who knows Philadelphia might recognize, without actually showing any particular location. Yes, the Ritz movie theatre is real,6 Rally Coffee is real,7 as is DiBrunos and Boyds and the fancy cocktail bar atop the Comcast skyscraper. But they’re all blocks and even miles from each other. I wanted this piece to look familiar. It’s nowhere, but could be everywhere.
While I’ve made a lot of illustrations over 30 years now, it’s still pretty neat to see them in print. Especially when they’re this huge. I’ve done work for various newspapers — The New York Times, The Village Voice, Boston Globe — but this was the first my hometown paper, and it was definitely cool to open this thing up.
Thanks to Anton Klusener for the opportunity, and thanks to my very own Valentine, Sacha, for providing snacks while I labored over this piece, and reminding me to get up and walk around a little bit. But my shoulder still hurts.
Quick cat update: Sacha takes a lot of pictures of Basil, the kitten. And I drew a picture of Mrs. Maple in her typical sleeping pose, which happens to be on top of me. Please enjoy the cat content. You’re welcome.
“Things made of wood.” I’ll get that out next.
It wasn’t. In fact, he asked specifically that I toss perspective and scale out the proverbial window as much as possible. Music to my ears.
Old farts? I don’t actually know Anton, so maybe it’s just me.
Today! Though technically, it was for the Sunday edition, Feb 11.
A topic for another newsletter. Though I really don’t care.
Did you catch those three movies that are playing? Get the connection?
And owned by my friend Meredith, so I was happy to get it in there.
"Sometimes illustration is like improv theatre" Oh man, this rings so true. Fantastic job on the illustration AND thanks for sharing so much about the process!
That's a beauty