This is one in a set of concept editorial illustrations that came as a result of wanting to diversify my portfolio, and to challenge myself to visualize ideas outside of my own headspace. They are not commissioned artworks.

The article, titled A Texas Utility Offers a Nighttime Special: Free Electricity, appears in The New York Times. It talks about how an abundance of nightly wind power in Texas has lead to electricity companies offering incentives to use less energy during peak daytime periods, i.e. free electricity at night.  

This was the first illustration in the series and it took me a very very very long time (half a year if I'm being generous). The problem was that I hadn't quite figured out my style, which added an extra hurdle in my process. So I thought and researched for a while until I eventually figured something out; the above sketches are just a few among many. I won't get too far into it here, but I finally decided on a direction and finally finally finally was able to proceed with my vision.

I was really drawn to the idea of "electric liveliness" and freedom with a nocturnal feel. I wanted to show vignettes of different people doing typical daytime tasks or activities – requiring the use of electricity – but in a night time setting.

This goes through final clean up and adjustments before proceeding to the next stage.  

It was really important to me to have the palette reflect two things: a) a "night-time" look and b) a "texas/americana" feel (red, white, blue colours). In the end I added in a light lavender to tie every thing together. I also went for a marker-textured brush, to make it more cohesive with my traditional media pieces. The added grain and halftone adds a layer of warmth and uniformity to the overall palette.