Cover art for the UK Spectator (and also on the Australian edition) illustrates modern addiction, and in particular Damian Thompson's article in regard to his book, The Fix. From the editorial team: "Advances in technology and proliferation of consumer culture are making us all far more compulsive and addictive in our habits than ever before."

The image above is not the final art used, as the editors thought that the drool might be too much for sensitive readers, so I removed it for the print-ready art, as you can see below.

For those inclined to read on, here's the sketching process...

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Sketches and Roughs

Below are the initial thumbnail sketches - basically quick concepts for the editors to choose from. Here we have...

A junkie/addict's face made up out of their vices:

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Two different views of a pusher selling modern consumer goods, outlined by the author (iPhone, junk food, prescription pills, porn etc.):

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A guy snorting up all the items - probably over the UK and Europe:

The editors liked the third one, but asked that the guy be changed to Britannia; the personification of Britain. So I drew another rough, tightening it up a little. I had to work fairly fast, as the different timezones were working against me...

But after they saw the rough the editors thought the overt drug use might be a little confronting for readers, so asked I go back to thumb #1, but instead of a face made up of vices, have Britannia with the vices swirling round her head. So I did up another quick rough to make sure all was hunky dory before spending too much more time on it...

I got the OK to proceed to colour on that one, but I like to tighten up the sketch a bit more before I ink...

The Published Cover...

And here's what you see on the newsstands... sans drool! They made her smaller and more centred in the layout, and were nice enough to move and keep my signature intact.

Thanks for looking!

~ Anton