TBT: Late Night NYC night club scene (circa 1997)

"Late Night NYC" illustration by Steven Salerno ©1997

TBT
Here's an ink & pastel illustration I created 18 years ago depicting a lively NYC nightclub scene... I can't remember who the client was, or even if it was an advertising or editorial assignment, but it's one of my favorites. I have it framed and on display in my studio. 

It was made simply by drawing the line art of the characters with an ink nib pen, then rubbing pastel colors into the paper with my fingers. If I were to create this same type illustration today I would still draw the characters with and ink pen on paper, but instead of rubbing the pastel into the ink drawing, I would rub the pastel onto a separate piece of paper, then scan the ink drawing and the pastel piece into Photoshop in separate layers. This would give me more flexibility in merging the ink line drawing with the pastel color background in terms of additionally manipulating the colors digitally as well as jockeying the positions of both elements. 

Visit stevensalerno.com

-latest illustration for The New York Times.... "City Sounds"

Posted here is a detail from my recent illustration for the The New York Times (art director: Carol Dietz) which will appear on the cover of the Real Estate section this Sunday, August 16th, 2015.

(see link to NY Times on-line to view full illustration)

The article is from the point of view of apartment living in the city, and all the sounds in the air, from the lovely to the annoying -depending on the listener. My illustration depicts an apartment building with different sounds emanating from each of the windows.... the detail view shown here is of a rocker playing his guitar. (It was created with charcoal pencil, gouache, and digital color.)

detail of illustration by Steven Salerno for the New York Times 8/16/15

I've been creating illustrations for the NY Times since 1980, just out of design school! As usual, it's always a bit of pressure to meet their tight deadlines....you just have to jump into it, fly by the seat of your pants and make all the visual decisions quickly, and hope for the best.

Visit stevensalerno.com to view all my various illustration portfolio sections and picture books for kids.