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 Why West’s low-fat diet advice could be deadly for Asia’s poor, because they’ll likely eat even more carbs, appears in the South China Morning Post. It cites researchers saying that the Western ideal of a low-fat diet would be deadly for Asia's poor, as they would likely replace fats with more carbs.

Research
Before diving into the layout of the piece, I like to do some compositionally unrestricted sketching and doodling in order to get a feel for what is possible. After that I take the elements I like and think are relevant to the article, and "reorganize" them into rough comps.  

For this piece, I wanted to give the impression of a cramped, overcrowded place, full of foods completely inundating people. An invasion of carbs, if you will. I decided that the composition in the top right communicated this the best.    

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

For this palette, I wanted lots of yellows and whites to accentuate the "carb" foods. I added dark purple in the background for contrast and a sense of ominous surrealism. 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.