See How Our Cover for "A Rat's Life" Was Drawn

Our cover story this week, "A Rat's Life," looks at the federal government's potential mishandling of paid informants. For the artwork, we turned to illustrator extraordinaire Graham Smith, and shot his creation of the work in time-lapse video.

Says Smith:

I'm an old-school illustrator. I draw on paper with pencils, erasers, brush, and pen and ink, and I finish the artwork digitally. This cover illustration was created over the course of a day, and it was time-lapsed into this 5-minute short by SF Weekly art director Andrew Nilsen.

Read more about this process on my blog: inkdrawing.blogspot.com

Want to see the finished product? Read our cover story, "A Rat's Life: MS-13 Snitches Run Wild While Turning State's Evidence."