The Issue on True Crime
KILLED OFF CAMPUS / Mary Jo Frug murder
The following is one of five scratchboard illustrations I did for the Boston Globe on their special Issue on True Crime.
The full articles can be read here: Boston Globe
• Edited by Alex Kingsbury and Jeremy D. Goodwin
• Art Director: Heather Hopp-Bruce
BRIEF
Five stories on unsolved New England homicides, each with a 10"x10" piece of art.
Art direction: Depicting the scene of the crime without bodies. Make something seemingly benign look sinister and dangerous, and tell the story with just the environment.
I researched maps and photos of the places, objects found on the sites, and even the actual weather on the day the crimes occurred in order to portray an accurate picture of the scenes.
New England School of Law law professor Mary Joe Frug was brutally killed on a quiet street in Cambridge, in 1991. The case remains unsolved to this day.
I used Google Maps to explore the scene and came up with ten thumbnail sketches exploring different angles and compositions. I chose the four most compelling.
The art director gave me some feedback and I pushed the composition further.
Then, I created a greyscale study composition.
Once the comp was approved I started the illustration on scratchboard. In this particular case I drew over the scratchboard instead of transferring the drawing using charcoal paper.
To be honest, I don't know why I did this. Maybe I didn't have charcoal paper at hand that time? Anyway, here is the rest or the process with scratchboard.
