“A Family History of Being Reckless”
2008, Freelance
The first illustration I created for Pomp & Circumstance magazine, this one for their 4th issue. George Kokkinidis of Design Language designs the magazine, and has been asking me to do some designs for the last two issues.
This was for a short story called “A Family History of Being Reckless” in which a high school student’s grandfather (who he rarely sees) picks him up from boarding school at the end of the year at his parents behest, and proceeds to have a mini-adventure.
In this scene, his grandfather has stuck a plastic wrapped package of meat down his grandson’s shirt, and the meat’s blood has seeped through. The grandfather then tricked the teller that the kid was bleeding, beckoning her to call an ambulance. While she did so they snuck out with the smuggled meat.
I wanted to create an image that wouldn’t let the reader turn the page without reading the story, so I chose this scene because at first glance, it looks like the kid’s bleeding... but without much concern on his face... hopefully instilling curiosity in the reader to check out the rest.
All images © 2002–2011 Drew Needham, except where otherwise indicated.
