Ashley Robin Franklin is an Austin, Texas based illustrator with whom we have worked several times in the past. For the August/September 2024 issue of Texas Medicine, we asked Ashley to illustrate a front cover with multiple individual elements combined into a whole. The process starts in our early issue planning meetings, where editorial brief us on the upcoming stories, and the various potential infographic, illustrative, and photographic needs of each.

Following that, we'll sketch out some very rough ideas - sometimes during the meeting - making sure we incorporate all the pieces required. Once that's complete, we'll send our almost-unintelligible sketch to Ashley, along with copious notes.

Ashley then responds with any questions, and proceeds to start making sense of everything we've sent. Usually there are a few rounds of revisions, which are mostly details we either add as the illustration progresses, or particular items or words that are still being determined while writing is in progress. Ashley sometimes also offers alternatives to what we proposed, which is immensely helpful.

Following approval of Ashley's much more comprehensive and detailed sketch, we use that as a placeholder in layout, while Ashley works on color. From this point it's usually smooth sailing, and we'll move from outlines to final color pretty quickly. You can see the full, final illustrated cover below.