Cover illustration for "FOKUS" magazine

Earlier this year I was asked to illustrate the cover of "FOKUS" magazine, Sweden's answer to "TIME". The magazine's cover story was about the imminent election of Mona Sahlin as leader of the country's Social Democrat party, and of the marathon journey ahead of her before the next election in 2010. Leader of the ruling Moderate party, and Mona's man-to-beat, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt also featured heavily in the story, so the AD wanted the cover picture to illustrate the two-person race that was about to get underway. The piece was called "Mona's Marathon" and I was to draw the politicians in running gear as they braced for the start of the race ahead - Sahlin looking confident and Reinfeldt just a little apprehensive. My first sketches looked like this:My preliminary sketches always look very rough - I don't see the point in doing terribly detailed pencils only for the concept to change as soon as the AD sees them. In this case I was asked to give Reinfeldt a somewhat healthier appearance, and swap their positions. The next sketch I submitted was a lot more worked-up:


This was the first time I had actually drawn Fredrik Reinfeldt, so it took a few attempts to get him right.


Sahlin came a lot easier, but then I had drawn her dozens of times before. Finally I was happy with both caricatures:

The next sketch featured pretty much finished pencils and I wanted an OK on the layout:


Finally I coloured the image up and the final cover came out looking like this... As for who wins the race, we'll just have to be patient and see what 2010 brings!