How I set out to become a freelance illustrator.
When I quit my day job as Head Illustrator at The Wall Street Journal, I was anxious to continue my artistic efforts on my own terms. Although I originated the iconic WSJ hedcut style that became so widely celebrated, I wanted to branch out into more diverse assignments, and I knew that my best chance was as a freelance illustrator.
This post focuses on one particular client, Thermador, and some work I did for them. The Ad Agency who tapped me for the project was Ketchum Communications. Among other illustration work I provided to this top-tier stove maker, there were several distinctive images I did for use in two print ads.
Illustrating two ads for Thermador
One ad featured poultry, the other, lobster. I created three illustrations as spots for the lobster ad. I like the graphic quality of these drawings…

Pot & Lobster Stipple Illustration

Lobster Tail Stipple Illustration

Lobster Cracker Stipple Illustration
Here is left page of the ad showing how they were used:

How to boil a dinner that’s not in a bag. | Thermador Ad
The poultry ad used a similar format. Here are three more illustrations from that ad —-two of these were a bit more complex than the lobster drawings, and required more care in capturing the detail:

Food & Wine | Spot Illustration

Cutting Veggetables

Cooking Scssors
The final illustrated ad pages.
The ad pages looked like this:

Left page of Thermador ad

Right page of Thermador ad
I hope you enjoyed viewing these Kevin Sprouls Illustrations as much as I did creating them. They were fun to draw, and successful.