The new issue of Runner’s World has hit the stands and I’m proud to say that I was asked to do the opening illustration for their seasonal “Shoe Guide” section! I’ve seen a lot of great illustrators take a stab at this assignment over the years so I’m really happy to be able to join the ranks.

As far as the assignment goes, it’s pretty wide open in terms of concept. You just need to have a running shoe and the season incorporated into your idea and the rest is up to the illustrator. Since I was working on the Fall my sketches all centered around my favorite aspect of the season; eating pie, carving pumpkins, and that crisp cool air rustling through the leaves (of course pie is at the top of that list). The AD ended up going with the pumpkin patch idea which I was more than happy to bring to life. I had a lot of fun working on the glowing hand lettering and I was pretty excited about my lumberjack runner, which you can see a little better in the detail shot below:

This color comp actually went through some big changes. Originally I had this scene taking place in the daytime in order to keep the image light and colorful, but the AD really wanted to have the lettering glow so we decided on dusk. That way the sky could still be relatively bright but the lighting in the pumpkin would make sense. Down below you can see the other ideas I came up with. Even though I was very pleased with the way the final came out, part of me would have loved to bring that giant apple-pie-sneaker to completion :)