‘Too Many Cooks’ Spectator Cover

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

This one was a little harder than some of the other magazine covers I've been doing, as there was little known about the Independents' decisions regarding the hung parliament and which party they would vote for. So the decisions regarding the subject matter and the subjects were all done quickly and at the last moment. Cover illustrations are usually a lot more laborious than newspaper editorial cartoons, so doing this sort of detail on topical events can be troublesome.

At first I had drawn Bob Katter in the left foreground, but it came to pass that he sided with the Coalition, meaning I had to rub him out and fill the space with another independent. I chose Rob Oakeshott. I was inking the drawing while listening to his (looooonnng) speech - hoping that he would vote for Labor - only to lessen my workload!

Luckily he did, and I inked and coloured like crazy; finishing this in a day.

Below are a few steps in the process:

Thumbnail and sketches

Quick thumbnail, above. This is just to get the composition down. Then the first sketch, with Katter (below). I wish I could have done this one. The cowboy hat is a nice visual element.