RFK Illustration

For my latest project I chose to illustrate one of my political heroes in one of the most famous moments in American history. I started with a video still from Bobby Kennedy's famous last speech at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968, where he had just won the California primary in his bid to become President. It is right after this moment, where he flashes the peace sign, that he walks off stage and into the hotel's kitchen that he is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.

The powerful thing about this moment for me is how Bobby is speaking to his self-built coalition of people from diverse backgrounds, and that he is offering an alternative to the violence and divisions that were present at that moment in our nation. In the illustration I wanted to incorporate different colors and make it somewhat abstract in order to symbolize the broad spectrum of people and ideas that contributed to Bobby and his campaign.

This whole project was done in illustrator as a vector piece of art. I thought it would be interesting to document the process as I went so here are the results. The final piece of course is at the bottom.