The Issue on True Crime
WHO SHOT NIKO NUNEZ?
The following is one of five scratchboard illustrations that I did for the Boston Globe on their special Issue on True Crime. The full articles can be read at this link: Boston Globe
• Edited by Alex Kingsbury and Jeremy D. Goodwin
• Art Director: Heather Hopp-Bruce
BRIEF
Five stories on unsolved New England homicides, each with a 10"x10" piece of art.
Art direction: Depicting the scene of the crime without bodies. Make something seemingly benign look sinister and dangerous, and tell the story with just the environment.
I researched maps and photos of the places, objects found on the sites, and even the actual weather on the day the crimes occurred in order to portray an accurate picture of the scenes.
Niko E. Nunez was shot and killed in 2014 in Aguadilla Street in the South End, presumably by a gang related fight. There are no clues on who did it or why.
I used Google Maps to explore the scene and came up with ten thumbnail sketches exploring different angles and compositions.
I chose the four most compelling and did a greyscale study comp on the approved one.
No it's time to transfer the comp study! I printed it and transferred to the scratchboard. Having no carbon paper available, I did it the old-school way: I printed the value comp, drew behind it with graphite, and the drew over the lines.
The rest of the process went like this:
