Common Ground

It seems like I hit a pocket of education-based commissions recently. No complaints there. It is admittedly fun to trick myself into thinking I'm smart enough to have my work in front of scholars. Like I sneaked into the teacher's lounge by proxy.

Then I read the paragraph I just wrote and reality comes crashing down.

Anywho... I was contacted by the American School Board Journal to create a cover for their March issue. The topic was the implementation of common core standards among US public schools. I had to convey the idea of unifying educational standards while raising them higher.

My initial round of sketches was pretty loose, as they've tended to be recently. When the art director leaves the solution very open ended I try to get as many ideas communicated without polishing them too much. My theory is that this will result in a quicker approval and more time to paint. However, after seeing Chris Whetzel's sketches, I think I may just be tricking myself into being lazy.
   The art director chose the obvious best choice. I knew the large grad cap was the best, but I really wanted to paint the tall hat crowd. I knew it didn't really make much sense, I just really liked how ludicrous it was. Sigh.

A big thanks to Carrie Carroll for the opportunity.
-S