Las Vegas Weekly: Criminals In the Family

Ryan at Las Vegas Weekly recently contacted me with an assignment I found pretty intriguing: one person's conflict about turning a family member over to the police. It seemed to be a situation no one would ever want to be in, and I thought it could make foe a good image. The deadline for this cover was very tight so I worked up some roughs for the AD to choose from:
VERY rough, I know. But when I provide such rough ideas, I work out a refined sketch to give the AD a good idea of what the final will look like; this also allows them to get a jumpstart on the layout:
I really like the way this cover turned out. I went through a lot of color versions only to come back to this approach.
Thanks to Ryan for encouraging me to work on a black background; that's always fun!

Enjoy the Day!
Chris