David Johnson, Trespass, Watercolor on Paper, 13 X 8"

Watercolor on Paper, 13 X 8"

While working at a daily Bay Area newspaper, Dave became one of several go-to in-house illustrators, producing a wide range of original illustrations for the daily. When editorial wanted to supplement their Monthly Book Club articles with illustrations rather than photos (of an author sitting at a table, stack of books in the foreground) Dave happily took on the assignment.

For these book club book illustrations Dave read the book in its entirety, came up with a concept, and painted the resulting composition. Each is a unique pictorial take on the fictional story, world, and themes.

Dürer's rabbit and an engraving tool came to mind for Dave's illustration for Valerie Martin's 2006 novel Trespass. Seen in the rendering of the rabbit is Dave's characteristic watercolor mastery.

What I really love is this edge - it got there from really loading up the area with a lot of paint, a lot of water and paint so that the pigment gets pushed to that edge and dries there and just makes this edge that you can't get any other way. There's no brush fine enough. -D.J.