Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search...

You may have heard all the buzz surrounding Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search contest. Winning it would be like winning the ultimate power ball lottery ticket right after Publisher's Clearing House rings your doorbell. Truthfully, I have never ever bought a lottery ticket, and I rarely, if ever, enter contests. Given the loooooong odds of ever winning, I had paid zero attention to it despite the lucrative prizes... two years of representation, along with licensing deals with some very big names. Even though the registration fee was waived for all MATS students, I still hadn't given it any thought, until I read the brief. Paperchase. Vintage playgrounds subject matter. Incorporate lettering. Make it fun. I was in. 

I tried to approach it like Lilla had led us through each week in the MATS course with a mini assignment of little drawings. The advantage this time, was 3 weeks to play with. I began by drawing multiple pieces of equipment and kids in different settings, etc. I knew I wanted to incorporate kids since an empty playground just didn't sound fun. As you can see, I'm far from a world class sketcher, but I had fun playing around with different kids, many of whom missed the final cut. I had wanted to make the required word "Journal," into part of a hedge, but I couldn't make it read well enough. Usually, I would pencil out the entire final layout, but this time, I pieced together the individual drawings, kind of treating it like a pattern, fitting it all together in illustrator. 

I kept trying to add as much detail as possible, until my daughter cut me off when I told her I wanted to add a half eaten pb&j sandwich on the ground for one of the birds to be pecking along with a squirrel juggling acorns! So wise for 13 years! I took her advice ;)

I was going to include this boy admiring the girl walking the puppy amongst other little scenes... paper boats and ponds, tire swings, benches and monkey bars, but I ran out of room and in many cases, I thought they didn't have enough to do with a playground scene.

Make no mistake...I have no delusions about winning, let alone making the first cut to the top 50, but it was too fun of a subject to pass up. No matter what, I have no regrets... other than maybe not including the acorn juggling squirrel ;)