Editorial Book Illustrations
Smithsonian magazine 2020 Top Books Lists
Each year, Smithsonian magazine releases its top recommended book lists for that year. There is a list for each of the following categories: science, history, travel, food, children’s books, and a list curated by Smithsonian experts.
For the past two years, I have made the illustrations for these editorial lists.
For the 2020 Book Lists, I decided to play off of the content of the books. I wanted the style to be playful and fun and wanted the books to be an active part of the illustration. For each illustration, I included elements of at least a couple of the books in that list. Each illustration was drawn using Procreate.
Smithsonian magazine 2019 Top Books Lists
2019 was the first year we made illustrations for the book lists. I wanted to bring life to the books, using them to create a scene representative of the list topic. For each illustration, I sketched the initial concept on paper and then drew the final version in Adobe Illustrator.
