Illustrating business articles brings out the suit & tie in me. I comfort myself by thinking it might also stave off alzheimers.  Stretch my multi- color legs over a tweed landscape. But what is up with the language? Why can’t they just talk, use words like a normal person. I often have to read sentences or entire paragraphs aloud to Ellen (my middle name: the responsible adult part of Wendy) or Joe, to understand even remotely what they mean. They also like to create nouns out of adjectives or verbs. Like using the word ‘ask’ as in, “that’s ‘an Ask,” meaning, ‘I’ll ask someone a question.’  ”Let’s conference about this.” Oh, do we have to? How ’bout we just talk about it. A good art director or editor – ah! they have no idea how valuable and appreciated they are.  I just finished an illustration for a Business- business and got to work with one of my favorites, Richard Merchan. Without him, I would sit, twirling my tie, scuffing my wingtips and reading out loud. Over and over. “Ellen, what do you think this means?”  Instead, I can just ‘ask Richard.’ He may not always know, but he finds out and never makes me feel like a loser.

Richard works for a huge american corporation, bringing their magazines to life every month. In real life, he is a brilliant successful artist: http://www.richardmerchan.com

This is one of his beautiful horses:

White Horse Acrylic, latex on canvas 70h X 80w inches information email: info@richardmerchan.com

And below are 3 rejected sketches for an upcoming article in one of Richard’s business magazines. The fourth, the idea that was accepted, is more literal and descriptive of the article  – which is about a kind of software with a verb for a name.

~ Windy

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