Second-string Players in the Spotlight

Here's a bit of a late post (sorry I fall behind with these; silly me would rather be drawing and reading instead of talking about myself :)

In this instance, I was to illustrate a final-page commentary about how the World Series has a history of putting "second-string" players  into the spotlight when the well-known players seem to head into Series slumps.

The sketches. The "Oscar" statue was requested up front, and I tried out a few ideas of my own. The middle sketch is a an attempt at taking that Oscar idea and making it more surreal with the player literally being gold (you know, like Norrin Radd). The sketch on the right was something a bit more narrative as sometimes the subject matter doesn't really need me imposing a visual pun.

Final art. As you can see, a simple approach turned out to be the most well-received and was selected for the final art. I really enjoy the ambiguity of the figure in this image and how it opens it up to possibly being anyone (sometimes faces just get in the way). I don't know if this comes across to readers/viewers, but it is something I enjoy exploring in my work. I've also been enjoying orange lately, but I'm breaking out of that :)

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris