Role Models book cover design

This cover went through the customary sketch approval process with John Waters and FSG art director Susan Mitchell, and once the sketch was approved I painted it, but John liked the pencil drawing best and that's what we used. It renewed my interest in pencil as a finished medium and I've been using pencil a lot more since, for the New York Times op-ed page, for the Atlantic and other magazines, for another book cover for Faber&Faber, and for an ad campaign with Modern Climate. The design was chosen as one of the 50 best covers of the year by AIGA.