Magazine cover sketches

Chuck Stanion, the editor of Pipes & Tobaccos magazine, is writing an article about my pipe related art for the summer 2012 issue, and asked me if I would hand draw the entire cover, including the masthead and blurbs. As the deadline is only a little over a week away, I figured I'd better get on it this weekend, so after choosing a few items that seemed like they'd be fun to put in the drawing, I did a couple of compositional sketches then dove in. The illustration is nearly complete, but I'll keep those of you who are interested in such ephemera in suspense - you'll have to wait until the issue is published to see the final piece. But here is a teaser - the two quick sketches.

pipes and accessories, graphite pencil sketches, 5 x 7