Just had the pleasure of working with Joe Heroun at The New Republic Magazine.  The cover story concerns the first 6 months of babies growing up in the inner-city.

The United States government's public policy has been almost entirely focused on inner-city children ranging in ages from two to five.  Thanks to new research, there's a greater urgency now to focus on the first six months of life instead and how it relates to breaking the cycle of poverty.

I usually start off with a very rough painting on top of small pieces of paper that have been glued to a board. Painting on top of the small pieces of paper allows for all kinds of wonderful imperfections--especially with the small paper outlines.  At this stage of course, the paint color has nothing to do with the final outcome.  The paint simply blocks in where I need to drop in color in Photoshop.

I sent Joe a couple other background choices--something that played more into the innocence of a baby's bedroom. For a bit more drama, however, in the end,we went for the black background.