Hot Dogging It for The Pittsburgh City Paper

For the second time in the past year, I was asked to do a cover for the Pittsburgh City Paper. A big thanks to Lisa (Art Director) for trusting me to handle the serious subject of a high-speed hot dog chase with the gravity it deserves. You can see the actual cover on the City Paper website, but if you stick around here I'll show you some of my steps in putting it together.

So the illustration is for a story on food trucks and how hard it is for them to exist and operate within the law in Pittsburgh. Lisa's idea was to have a "generic food truck being chased by a cop car." We banged around a couple of fun ideas and came up with this image, inspired by '70s cop show car chases (mostly because I didn't feel like drawing boring modern police cars what with their aerodynamic curves and such). Here's the pencil sketch and the comic-book-style inks, done in Photoshop. If you look at the image while playing the theme to Starsky and Hutch, you'll get the full effect.

The next step is flat colors (in Photoshop) followed by some highlights and shadows to add depth. I love doing goofy retro cartoony stuff, so this piece was right up my alley. As Lisa pointed out, the cop looks like he's shouting "Why I oughta'…." which, if you know me, is one of my favorite expressions. Can't wait to do another cover for these guys. Which reminds me…

Will my next cover also include a scarf-wearing bandit like these last two? Seems to be a recurring theme for me. If so, great. Maybe it'll earn me some much-needed street cred. -v