Wheelchair racing

Wheelchair racing, originally uploaded by petrus01.

Washington Post's explanatory graphic describing the gear used by wheelchair racer Tatyana McFadden and top speeds achieved by both, regular and wheelchair athletes.

Also can be found at:http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/a-quick-look-at-wheelchair-racing/494/

Asteroid mission

Asteroid mission

Information graphic for the Health and Science section explaining NASA's proposed mission to retrieve an asteroid and bring it to a lunar orbit.
A motion graphic of the same topic can be found in the story page: wapo.st/spacefuture

Water pipes

Water pipes, originally uploaded by petrus01.

Explanatory graphic describing the structure and failures of prestressed concrete cylinder pipes (PCCP) for the Local section of the Washington Post.

Interactive:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/why-water-mains-fail/#

Tinity

Tinity, originally uploaded by petrus01.

Explanatory graphic detailing some historic and technical facts about the first American test of an atomic device. Published on the Health and Science section of the Washington Post on June, 4 2013.

NOAA SolarMax Poster

NOAA SolarMax Poster, originally uploaded by petrus01.

Poster created for NOAA wit some of the most relevant science facts about Solar Storms and Space Weather.

Sleep

Sleep, originally uploaded by petrus01.

Graphic for the Health and Science section describing how specific aras of the brain are associated with sleep disorders.

The War Horse

This project is the brainchild of our Graphics Editor Bonnie Berkowitz who, some three weeks ago, saw the potential for a big piece for our Sunday Arts section.

War Horse, the Tony Award winner play based on Michael Morpurgo's novel was coming to the Kennedy Center on October 23 and the fact that the main character of the show was a life-size puppet created by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, seemed like a great opportunity to create an explanatory infographic for our readers.

Final double page

Given the bizarre and unconventional appearance of the puppet, I decided to start working first on the cover illustration for the section so I could familiarize myself with the creature. I used ink pens of different widths for the outlines and then applied washes of watercolour.   

Cover illustration

Creation stages of cover Illustration

The overal design of the infographic had the usual central theme which I planned to use as a visual guide to explain how then puppet was operated and as a map for a series of diagrams pointing to some crucial mechanical components of the horse. The graphic also would include two secondary components: a description of several configurations of the puppet and a timeline, discussing the evolution of several puppets created by Handspring that, ultimately, inspired the creation of Joey.

Production sketch

The main component of the graphic was created on a 20 x 25 in rigid board with the same technique than the cover Illustration. 

  

Main illustration

At this point, I also decided to give the graphic certain appearance of age, by creating a background  imitating a worn off fabric texture. The idea was originated by the fact that the War Horse puppet exterior is made of cane and cloth.

In order to keep a stylistic coherence acros the whole piece, I decided to go for a hand-drawn feel for the whole graphic.

Diagrams

That was also the case for all the secondary illustrations.

Secondary Illustrations

A high resolution copy of the infographic can be found here; an interactive version here and a photogallery detailing the creation process of the piece here.