The Washington Post invited us to illustrate the cover for the Health & Science supplement, portraying their lead story on couples sleeping in separate bedrooms. We show two beds cut in half with contrasting rooms and a couple holding hands across the divide.
Our challenge was to create a harmonious scene but with clear contrast. The main way we achieve this is through colour; warmer on the left side and and a cold colour palette on the right. We also have contrast in the characters' level of neatness and their perceived interests, with one reading - their bedroom also includes bookshelves - and the other listening to music, complete with a record player and vinyls.
To create that sense of harmony and tie the two opposing scenes together, we use pattern as a predominant theme. Although the rooms may be full of differences, they have the same style of textures and patterns running throughout, bringing a craftiness and playfulness to the illustration.
The broken perspective was created in a 2D sketch, making for a fun illustrative style. We wanted the two rooms to have equal importance so went for a birds eye angle, but played with the perspective within clear guidelines.
