Drafts for November 2022 cover illustration
Kristin Shafel, a Madison native, spent more than a decade working as a musician, writer, and in higher education in Kansas City, Missouri. During this time she also had what she calls a “transformative experience” while living abroad in Singapore, when she rediscovered her old childhood passion for drawing.
She returned to Madison in 2018 and in May 2022 graduated from the Madison College graphic design and illustration program. Kristin specializes in photorealistic graphite pencil drawings, photography, design, and digital illustration. For this month’s cover, Kristin wanted to illustrate an intimate, introspective scene that depicts the brief, quiet moment between a summer full of activities and the hectic holiday season.
Kristin initially provided art director Tommy Washbush with a whopping 11 concepts, focused on various sites around Madison, including the UW Arboretum, Picnic Point and Monona Terrace, and on animals you might see in the winter, such as wild turkeys and snowy owls. After narrowing it down to three main choices, she became enamored with the concept of a girl with a leaf, saying, "After sleeping on it and looking again this morning, I am really loving this direction.” Tommy thinks enthusiasm produces the best results, so he trusted her judgment and let her dictate where the cover would go from there.
See more of Kristin’s work on Instagram at @kristinshafelcreative and on her website.
