Eric Hanson

Pencil drawings are the closest re-creation of thought.

—ERIC HANSON

Illustrator Eric Hanson shared this recent project with us, a book cover in which the work-in-progress became the finished piece:

"I've discovered (after years of painted illustration for many magazines and design clients) that pencil drawings are the closest re-creation of thought. The discovery came while working on the cover of John Waters' new memoir ROLE MODELS, for Susan Mitchell at Farrar Straus. I went about the usual sketch/approval process, Mr. Waters picked one of my sketches, I painted it, and then an interesting thing happened: he said he liked the drawing best. So the art on the cover of the book is what I drew in pencil, with all of its rehearsals and second thoughts intact. (I owe a lot to the percipience of Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Waters.)

I've since developed the pencil style into a very usable line for the op-ed pages of the New York Times and LA Times, as well as a few design clients. There is something more personal and more immediate about pencil. It really is thought on paper."

Eric is working on a a continuous drawing, above, inspired by the suburban landscape. He hopes to develop it into a children's book: "One page will leave off where the next one picks up and the child will follow along with his finger, scrutinizing, as I did, the variety of domestic landscapes along the way."