New York Times Jack Ma Art

The Jack Ma Way- Greg Newbold Digital 9" x 10.3"

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Minh Uong, art director for the New York Times. I had worked with him a long time ago when he was with the Village Voice, but somehow we had not had another opportunity to work together for the past several years. As we caught up on things he offered me a project that I could not pass up. I mean, can you really pass on a front page business section feature illustration in the New York Times? I certainly couldn't. The article was to be an in depth look at Chinese internet tycoon Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group. I have to admit, I knew absolutely nothing about Jack Ma before taking on this project, but a little time on the internet solved that problem. Ma's network of online businesses include China's version of Ebay, Amazon, and PayPal among other offerings. Since Alibaba's founding in 1999, Ma has become a billionaire and one of China's most powerful businessmen. He turned out to be a very interesting character with a unique face and personality that I was determined to capture. I watched several interviews with him as well as looked at countless photos to analyze his features.

The concept that Minh and I discussed for the art was to show Ma as the leader of this new global marketplace but with a lighthearted nod to the Mao era Chinese propaganda posters. I loved the imagery in some of those old posters depicting the heroic worker. I decided to use the color and feel of those old posters but avoid having things feel overbearing and communist. Since I had a relatively square format to work within and I knew I wanted Jack Ma to be front and center, I designed two options to present and then gave those two options a different treatment visually.

One version would be painted in my usual full color style and the other would be a more graphic version similar in feel to some of the old propaganda posters I had seen that were more like ink drawings with blocks of color. Minh told me that it was a tough choice between the two different aesthetic options but they ultimately wanted to go with the full color painted option. In a final touch, the flags in the background would bear the logos of the various Alibaba group companies as well.

Original drawing submitted

Revised drawing with jacket and tie

One of the editors also felt that he needed to look less like a worker and more like a businessman, so I added the suit jacket and tie. I was also asked to smooth out the jacket a little by making it a more tailored and less rumpled. I smoothed out a few of the wrinkles in the sleeves and jumped in to the finish rendering.

Jack Ma final drawing version

I really wanted to give this one the aged feel of an old poster that had been folded and worn, so the last step was to add some distressing and folds that I created on a separate piece of paper and added over the top of the finished piece.

That last bit of grunge and folded paper I think pushed it from good to really good. I am thrilled with how it turned out and the good reactions I have received since it hit the newsstands yesterday. I'm excited to add this one to my portfolio and see what it does in competitions. Hopefully it will lead to some more good work for me.

Read the New York Times Article here

Palm Island Poster Finished

Palm Island- 18x24- digital by Greg Newbold

A while back I showed sketches for a game project I was working on. I finally finished the first phase of the project and we are now planning for the next round which will include a Kickstarter campaign to fund what's coming next.

The Connection hero has plenty of options to make eye contact with you

This poster will play part in both the board game as well as a counseling program that helps children build life skills such as gratitude, courage, generosity and personal connection. The game will be able to be played independently from the program and will be a lot of fun. When I was first approached to do this project, The initial idea was to have kids as the characters on the poster and the in the game.

The Generosity hero helps you out and cheers you on

I asked how open was the client to other ideas and she said I had plenty of latitude as long as the concepts were clear. I came up with the idea of making the super hero monster characters to embody each of the concepts in a fun way. Each finger of the hand shaped island represents one concept and the goal of the game will be to make it to the top of your chosen character's finger by successfully completing challenges and and answering questions. You can also progress by helping other players reach their goals.

This guy is actually the bad guy albeit not too scary of one

This game aims to be family oriented fun while subtly teaching life skills that kids need to succeed. There will be additional elements for me to illustrate as we get closer to making the full fledged board game a reality and as the program and games expand on the idea of these new heroes.
I am excited to see where we go from here.

Monster Sketches

I'm working on a fun project that includes a poster and eventually a complete board game. Client has given me really good creative freedom that sparked the characters I came up with. I'm looking forward to populating the project with these guys in all sorts of fun situations. I'll keep you posted on the fun as I go along.