I did this Rousseau inspired cover illustration for Directorship magazine. It illustrated an article on how to watch out for the unpredictable in the business world. Everyone can forecast a gray rhino but a white elephant is a bit more unexpected. A black swan, even more so.

I sent in three sketches for the art director, Patricia Smith, to review (see below). Originally I had the black swan in the foreground and against a pool of water so it would show up better. The elephant was in the background since it was the largest. I did a version where the elephant and the rhino were facing in opposite directions and one where they were facing in the same direction.

Patricia suggested placing the black swan in the background and against a darker area since that was part of what the article was about: not being able to see something rare that will affect one’s business. We also flipped the rhino and elephant, placed the elephant in the foreground since it was visually more appealing. And we tossed in a bird and a couple of monkeys just to make it more interesting.

This was painted in acrylic on illustration board, scanned into the computer and finally taken into Photoshop.