I recently provided some illustrations for Pilot Pocket Books, a Toronto-based literary and artistic journal. I like the concept behind Pilot: Each short story author is matched with an artist. Artists are asked to provide a title page, some spot illustrations, and a portrait of the author.

I illustrated David Burke’s tragic-comic story Assiniboine Girl, whose story takes place around a ski lodge:

lodge-spot

For the title page, I researched National and Provincial, and State Park signs and created an amalgam of their typefaces and layouts:

assiniboine_girl

 

I also drew a chairlift because I like drawing clunky machines:

chairlift-spot

Pilot’s artists are asked to draw the author based on a provided photograph. This is David Burke:

david_burke-greyscale

The author is also asked to write a paragraph describing the artist based on a provided photo:

rob-sunflowers

This is what David Burke wrote: “I see no man here, only a stylish shirt, bobble-head sunflowers, black-rim glasses and a coffee mug whose clever caption I can’t quite read. Is this all part of his diabolical plan? What powers, besides invisibility and artistry, doth he possess?”

Pilot XI is available at better newsstands.