Reid’s sketch goes from
Facebook to book cover

A sketch posted on Facebook by a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture has become the cover illustration for a novel to be released in 2010.

“I created the sketch without any knowledge of the book or the intent to do anything more than eventually create a painting from it (the drawing),” said Russell W. Reid.

After the sketch was posted, said Reid, it was “discovered — someone forwarded it to someone who forwarded it to someone else,” he said.

The book, "The Medicine Woman," written by Leah Leonard, is about a young woman, half Native American and half East European, whose life is redefined by losing everything after enduring a 3-month coma. It’s scheduled for publication in 2010, he said.

Reid has worked professionally in the fields of visual communications and in large-scale graphic design for more than 25 years. His architectural illustrations continue to be commissioned by international architectural firms.

Reid's massive-scale fine art is represented by galleries in Austin, Los Angeles, and New York. HIs teaching interests are in the areas of observational and analytical drawing languages, architectural design communications, urban planning communications, and the creative processes in visual communication theory in the rapidly changing pedagogical paradigm of the millennial generation.

- Posted: Oct. 26, 2009 -