In Character - A Journal of Everyday Virtues

In Illustration Markets last week we submitted our editorial assignments.  The assignment was to create three illustrations - one cover, and two spots - for In Character magazine.  Each issue of the magazine is about one virtue.  The few that got picked by other students were honesty, generosity, wisdom, and one more but I can't remember the word, something to do with selflessness.  The issue I chose was the Grit issue.  Grit means "stick-to-it-ness," perseverance, not giving up.

I read a few articles and decided to go with one about Seabiscuit the racehorse from the 30s/40s, and an article on Albert Einstein and how he never gave up even though his peers often did.

The Einstein article talked about how he never gave up or lost hope, Einstein was determined to find results.  The article quotes Einstein describing himself as "an ostrich with [his] head forever buried in the sands of relativity."  This quote stuck to me and lead my to the final drawing.  Since I had to have consistency in the images I created, and this one had lots of ostriches in it, it only made sense to carry the animal theme through out the rest of the pieces, which also worked out well since Seabiscuit is a horse.  I also had to continue using the element of type so the text didn't seem random. 

Pen, ink, watercolor and digital color
8 x 7.5 inches

The Seabiscuit article describe the horse as, to put it in one word, awkward.  The article had a whole list of characteristics that were wrong and not beneficial for racehorses, all characteristics that Seabiscuit seemed to have.  Seabiscuit apparently lost every race for two years, or something like that, apparently it was because his trainer didn't care much for him.  There was a change of trainer and the second one gave poor awkward Seabiscuit some TLC and the horse went on to become one of the greatest racehorses in racing history.

This is my spot illustration for the article.

Pen, ink, watercolor and digital color.
7.5 x 5 inches

And finally, the cover.  The cover was a bit of a challenge.  I had to show "grit" but not really reference any of the articles but just illustrate what the word means.  Plus I had to use animals and text.  I researched sea turtles, humpback whales, penguins, and hammer head sharks.  All these animals have to go on long, hard voyages in order to reproduce/eat.  But I felt that they were too obvious a solution.  I ended up choosing African termites!  They build mounds that can sometimes be over six feet tall!  They've definitely got some grit.  The cover illustration became the only one without text that I created, but it has the journal and issue name so I think that counts as type.

 Pen, ink, watercolor and digital color
10 x 7.5 inches


All three are dated April not May.