"Four generations in the park"

"Four generations in the park"

With Mother's Day approaching in the U.S on May 8th, I thought it would be fun to share another cover sketch I sent into The New Yorker a few years ago for a Mother's Day cover. I admit I loved the concept so much, I sent it in twice- a year apart. This illustration was inspired by a family I saw in a park. It was really sweet to see the four generations all together and I thought it would make a lovely Mother's day cover while paying homage to the "sandwich generation"- the mom in red who is caring for her own mom, her daughter, and her grandkids.

Between projects, it's been nice to revisit these sketches and add some color and life to them in order to share them with you and to add them to my portfolio. I had a fun time figuring out the color palette in order to make it feel spring like but also cohesive and "related". I built my color palette before I began painting and I kept it limited, which was a great way to build a digital painting. I can see myself working this way more often. I also tucked in a family trait of a unifying hair cowlick.

I knew one of my great grandparents growing up. But my own grandmother's never met my kids. My maternal grandmother passed away a few months before my wedding and my paternal grandmother passed away when I was pregnant with my first. It's really special to have so many generations around at once. Do you have a lot of generations living at once?