San Francisco Bay Guardian "Best of the Bay" illustrations

This project is almost unreal in a sense because I have been reading this newspaper in the Bay ever since I was a teenager. Im dating myself here but that was more than 15 years ago. Around that time I started to search for concerts, shows, etc. I mean this newspaper was how you found out about what was happening-no internet! I used to collect issues with articles about graffiti or turntablists so to be featured as an artist is amazing. Not only that, but my work is out now on the most circulated and shared issues of the year, the "Best of the Bay" issue where dance troupes, restaurants, musicians, politicians, activists, taco trucks, book stores, etc get voted the best. For a lot of Bay transplants this is literally one of the ways to get to know the city of SF and the greater Bay Area. So, here we go. One cover and four sections. It all started more than two months ago with this teaser image that was posted on the front page a month ago. The main theme was "sounds of the city" so the art director wanted to have a lot of instruments
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Next up, the "Arts and Entertainment" section

Food and Dining

Shopping

City life

And the cover lawd, I thought "no problem" at first. But the more I drew , the more I struggled with what to do. I know some of you artists get that sometimes right? Im sure a 100 artists could do an ill cover, but hey this is mine and I had fun doing it. Especially after I changed and moved stuff around 10 times!

On the imagery, For this I wanted to show "Children". SF has one of the lower rates of kids due to the super over priced housing, but yo there are still hella kids there. My mother and all my aunts and uncles went from k-12 there. I wanted to show some cats protesting and playing music because i think SF comes from a very diverse array of people who all bring their own flavor. I want to give a shout out to my art director Brooke Robertson for backing up my ideas even if some were way off what she had in mind. And for giving good feedback to improve them. 

READ The SFBG issue ONLINE: You'll get a sense of why this newspaper has been and will continue to throw some rocks here in the Bay. Here's a couple of screen shots, will post real paper when I actually get one.