Oprah Winfrey Cover for The Utne Reader

The Utne Reader cover I did for Stephanie Glaros (one of my most favorite art directors, ever) is out, featuring Oprah Winfrey graduating from her network talk show to her new role as tv tycoon and publishing magnate. I'm not an Oprah acolyte so was unfamiliar with the details of her harrowing childhood, hideously molested as a child and finding refuge in TV shows and imagining herself accomplishing grand things in a brilliant future.


After reading the article, my first sketches showed Oprah as a child, watching her imagined future self on TV, Oprah as Mary Tyler Moore tossing her beret in the air (the opening sequence of the TV show that Oprah loved as a girl), Oprah holding the young version of herself protectively, both of them looking into the future, stuff like that.


After some back and forth, it was decided they wanted Oprah alone on the cover, in a graduation cap, holding the emblems of her huge success, looking glam but somewhat serious. Oprah's not easy to paint, her weight has fluctuated pretty wildly and with lots of different hairstyles and makeup and all, it's very hard to pin her down. And that's a picture of her as a child on the cover of the magazine she holds.