I just got my mid-week newsletter from Modern in Denver  --letting readers know that the Winter Issue was out. December 15th marked the day that the magazine was being shipped to subscribers and newsstands. I haven't seen the issue in print yet, so I'm very excited to see how the cover and inside feature story look in person -and in the newsstand line-up.

I was asked to work on this project about 6 weeks ago, and it has offered me the privilege of working with William Logan at Modern in Denver. I can't thank him enough for asking me to create the cover for the magazine. In addition, they also did an "Artist Profile" article on me and my custom home portrait work - which includes quite a number of my home portrait illustrations. What an incredible opportunity!

The cover concept was inspired by a Better Homes and Gardens magazine cover from September 1958. A classic! Fall was changed to Winter. Cars and a couple of homes were updated to contemporary styles and tastes. Overall, the concept was updated to a more modern sensibility. The second home from the bottom (the dark gray home) is the featured home in the Winter issue. We even found a way to include a couple of employee dogs, a car, and family members.

This project was a lot of fun to work on and I can't wait to see the end results of the collaboration.

I'll post again soon -when I have the magazine in hand and can share a little more about creating the artwork and working with Modern in Denver.

Select the masthead below to see a list of the contents in the Winter Issue.

Over a month ago, I ask a friend (Diane) if she'd take a look at a few options for the image I'd be using for my Winter - Atomic Ranch magazine ad. She's a true MCM aficionado and I value (greatly!) her insight into what she feels "works"...especially for projects like this. Diane is active on the Friends of Atomic Ranch FaceBook site and I got the idea that it might be fun to have her post the 3 images and ask those readers for their opinions.

I had decided that in creating an ad for the Winter edition it might be fun to show an ad that was more seasonal for the edition; moodier colors, maybe snow... Although I like the snow concept, I wasn't sure if it was right way to proceed for this publication.

Diane posted the three concepts: one with snow filling the whole background. One with snow that fell above a "s" shape design, and another with no snow at all.

I was a very fun, interesting and surprising experiment to show the 3 ideas to this highly motivated group and ask which version they liked.

Using the seasonal snow background was clearly the way to go (I was hoping for this outcome). With only a few exceptions, the winner was split between A and C. It was really interesting to hear how people interpreted the snow. Some thought they were "stars", others thought the "swoosh" pattern was a hill - and, as you can image, everything in between.

My final choice? It ended up being "C". I hope you'll think it was the right choice too!

Atomic Ranch has shipped to subscribers in the past week+ and if not already, it will be on newsstands any day now. I hope you'll check it out.

Thanks, Friends of Atomic Ranch! I appreciated your responses and interest in being part of this process.