Of Hoops and Healing: Remembering, Retelling, Reliving for Bostonia Magazine

THE CLIENT

Bostonia Magazine (Boston University's alumni magazine)

THE ASSIGNMENT

Seven illustrations for an interactive on-line experience, depicting an eight-step meditation ritual, designed by teacher and author, Onaje Woodbine. The ritual takes the participant through a journey of major points in black history, using basketball as a metaphor. By the end, he or she makes a personal commitment to better the future in spite of their struggles.

GETTING STARTED

My client forwarded me a storyboard, to follow. So, the direction was pretty well-defined.

The participant, symbolically, starts in Africa, traveling through slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, the underground railroad, the great migration, civil rights movement, and finishes at liberation. The intensity of the basketball game shifts as we travel this journey. The crowd echoes the mood by being joyful, riotous, mournful, or other appropriate emotion. Text and sound helps share the story and completes this unique interactive experience.

The seven illustrations take place at Malcolm X Park basketball courts. The point-of-view is from the participant, as if she or he were on-court, playing. Lastly, the story should transition from day to night and back to day, mirroring the high and low emotions of these events. The first illustration would be repeated as the eighth liberation step, coming full circle.

My first step was to start gathering reference.

The main setting is the court, so, I hunt for the courts at Malcolm X Park, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. There is a unique blue and white paint pattern that distinguishes the court. It should, also, reflect the mix of its urban and natural setting. I decide to utilize the short concrete wall as a backstop design element, and as a separator of the court from the trees. It allows me to combine the urban and natural elements without having to get too complex or distract from the main story.




Fortunately, I live near a park, with a basketball court. So, I dribbled on down the road and took plenty of photos to nail down my perspective and create a solid foundation for my illustrations. I included shots of me, in various positions, on the court, to further solidify my perspective, with the players and crowd.




The diffuse lighting, that day, was perfect, as it allowed me the greatest versatility, without having to deal with hard, directional shadows.

The next major element are the players. So, I got into my faux-basketball garb and snapped myself in a variety of defensive stances.




Lastly, the crowd. Again, I threw myself in front of the camera, taking various postures and actions, relevant to the stories the crowds would tell. I'm always considering consistent lighting, as I take these reference photos.






PRELIMINARY SKETCHES

Since the direction was pretty clearly defined, in my client’s storyboard, I just needed to flesh it out, including the tonal transition from day to night and back to day. I sent some initial sketches to ensure I was on the right track.









REVISIONS

My client was on-board, with it, all. Just a few minor adjustments to a couple of players were requested. The next step would be to refine the crowds, who would be helping to tell the story, by what they were doing, in each panel. I, also, wanted to refine the players’ faces, replacing my “for-position-only” heads, from my initial sketches.

I re-submitted the following, along with a color comp, to make sure our visions, aligned:










THE FINAL ART

All was approved. It was time to move, forward.

The final interactive experience may be seen, HERE.

Click “Enter The Court,” and follow the instructions to move through all eight steps. Take a moment to, also, click “Read The Story.” It’s quite fascinating to learn the story behind this journey.

My thanks to the folks at Bostonia for the opportunity to collaborate on this fantastic project.









Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Country Doctor

The assignment:

Create an illustration to reflect the compassionate relationship between doctor and patient for a book of short stories about country doctors.

The challenge:

In order to capture a compassionate, intimate scene, I felt it important to create a close sense of space -- using the bedside and curtain partition, as well bringing the viewer outside looking in through the room door. All this helps create context. A warm, lovely light helps to add emotion and a sense of intimacy.

It was also important not to make it about specific people, which is what can happen when faces and eyes are involved. Through viewing angles and use of light, I attempted to make the faces a lesser area of focus.

The process:

My mother and father just happened to be visiting at about the time this assignment was given. I asked if they would be the subjects. They graciously agreed. We then proceeded to do a photo shoot at their hotel room.

It was about 2 hours of some of the silliest doctor-patient conversation one would ever hear -- certain to cause heads to roll at the AMA. But, I captured some terrific poses.

From this, I crafted several sketches.



The last entry was the chosen candidate for the final.

It was a pleasure, not only to be involved with the project, but to also be able to immortalize my parents in this way. To me, every nuance reveals the compassionate relationship they share -- here, as doctor and patient.

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Bert Degheri for USD Magazine

Bert Degheri -- a 1961 alumni of what is now the University of San Diego, a significant donor to the school, and the subject of the "Giving Back" feature of a recent issue of USD Magazine, for which I was fortunate to illustrate.

My challenge with this illustration was to keep the color palette more natural, rather than use the pumped up reds and oranges that tend to permeate my pieces. By the same token, I wanted to give the eye something extra to feast on, so I let the radiant warm undertones just peek through between select seams in the composition.

The University of San Diego is a long-time terrific client, for whom I'm always honored to work.

So how are things going, out there? Well, I hope.

How are things with me, you ask?

Things are good, thanks!

Where in the heck have I been, you ask?

Thanks for asking! I've been illustrating, as usual; creating all sorts of creative work for lots of terrific clients, to which I'm always grateful.

I've also discovered photography, and it's gotten under my skin. I'm enjoying the challenge of learning and applying my visual sensibilities to this new (to me) medium.

My illustration work derives a touch of influence from fashion photography, so it was only natural that my efforts at photography take on those same influences.

Here's a recent effort featuring the lovely Melodie, my frequent collaborator.



So, between my many attempts at visual creation, and trying to learn with rabid fervor, I'm afraid my blog has suffered undue neglect.

Thanks, again, to everyone who has checked in and supported this blog and my work. I haven't forgotten about you!

Thanks, as always, for taking some of your time to check us out! Stay tuned...

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
•View more of his work»
•Sign-up for his newsletter»
•Purchase prints»