City Guide 2013

Here's a new piece I did for the Philadelphia City Paper's City Guide 2013. The City Guide is the City Paper's annual publication for introducing residents both old and new to a potentially richer experience in the City of Brotherly Love with venues, restaurants, neighborhoods, and events. You can peruse the entire issue at http://issuu.com/phillycp/docs/cityguide_2013
Art director Reseca Peskin contacted me with the idea of drawing Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Bridge along with the city skyline behind it.
I sketched up a couple of ideas that would fit the bridge and skyline into the cover's layout. Right from the start, I wanted to do my first sketch. Luckily, Reseca and the folks at the City Paper agreed and let me go for it.

Sketches

With the go-ahead, I started gathering a whole lot of reference images. Since this piece was specifically for people in Philadelphia, I was determined to get all of the details just right. I know I'd be peeved if someone got my hometown wrong, so I really didn't want to disappoint.

Detail - Skyline

Although I was initially a bit intimidated by the architectural aspects of the drawing (despite the genetic predisposition possibly passed on to me by my dad the architect) I ended up really enjoying inking this piece. I especially enjoyed it because I got through a whole bunch of episodes of This American Life.
In order to get that detail I wanted, I did the piece as two separate drawings. One was just the foreground with the bridge and its base and the other drawing was of the skyline, which I then shrunk down to the appropriate size in Photoshop. 
The issue just came out and I'm incredible happy with how it turned out.

Thanks to Reseca and the folks at the City Paper for a great gig!

--CKL--