Fortune Cookie Cowboy Project

In 2024 I was challenged to interpret a fortune from a fortune cookie as an editorial illustration. My fortune was “Reach for the high apples first, you can get the low ones anytime.” which I interpreted as “Strive for more difficult things, easy things occur frequently”. I subverted the subject and chose to depict someone who did not strive for difficult things. Instead, we have a sad cowboy who didn’t reach for the high apples. The layered style is inspired by David Weidman’s illustrations. I loved the transparency of tissue paper and the hand-printed aesthetic. I initially drew the rocking horse in my sketchbook as an experiment in layering markers but ended up using it in the final illustration.