Savage Love Update

So, if you're a reader of Savage Love in the Washington City Paper, you probably saw this image in the most recent issue. Hope you liked it, 'cause you're gonna be seeing a lot of it! It's the new permanent illo, which'll grace the page every week instead of an illustration specific to the column. Obviously, I'd much prefer it was a new image every week, but I suppose this is better than nothing.

A word about the design...I figured that the best approach to take would be to address the spirit of the column, and what makes it what it is. The thing will keep running every week for who knows how long, so the trick is to be timeless. To that end, I picked a few random objects of kinky obsession - a high-heeled shoe, a bullwhip, a vibrator, and a girl's perfect ass - and had them surrounding a typical, should-know-better-but-can't-help-himself Savage Love letter writer... drenched in flop-sweat, naturally. Finally, I thought rendering the whole mess as if it were an old-timey, Grandma-stitched sampler would give it just the right level of absurdity and ridiculousness.