Trying something new

I wanted to try charcoal sketching, and I thought this assignment would be a perfect fit for that tone.
The story was about layoffs, and I really wanted the image to be a box of stuff that would be on a desk. Initially, I thought this would just be a photo illustration, but our photographers are pretty loaded down with assignments these days, so I thought I'd take a crack at it.

So I picked up a basic charcoal sketching set at the local art store and a watercolor pad (since I thought I might be watercoloring). I was going for a gritty look, but the end result didn't turn out exactly like I was hoping. Probably because I ran out of time and had to do the coloring in Photoshop — not that I had any decent markers anyway ("Dear Santa..."). But it was a valuable learning experience that produced a totally usable image.

If I could go back and start this one over, I might have just done really ragged marker edges to achieve a different take on a "gritty" look. (Next time...) I especially liked adding the details here: the farm picture... days of the week on the calendar...

At the last minute, I added the brown "label" on the front to serve as a background for a breakout of tips that went with the story. Without that bit of color, the words got lost.

Definitely gotta get me some markers...