In his office located in the corner of a graphic design shop, Shawn Sales displays the various graphic art awards he earned during his nearly nine-year military career.
Towering over his two glass DoD Military Graphic Artist of the Year awards is a framed copy of the magazine cover that yielded his most recent honor -- the Thomas P. Bartlett Award as the creator of Leatherneck magazine's best cover for 2012. Sales created a graphite illustration of a Marine and two helicopters for the September 2012 issue of the Marine-focused publication with a circulation of 294, 834.
Sales was one of seven photographers and artists who qualified for the honor and received the award in early August.
"The artwork produced for Leatherneck's September 2012 cover by Shawn Sales incorporated his superior talent as an artist, clearly demonstrated his superb eye for technical detail and accuracy and his understanding of the U.S. Marine Corps' war-fighting focus on the air-ground team," said Walt Ford, editor and publisher of Leatherneck. "This gave him the edge over others in our competition for best cover in 2012."
Sales served as an instructor in the Marines' Basic Multimedia Reproduction Course at the Defense Information School before separating from the Marines in late-July as a sergeant. He now manages the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security's visual information shop, which designs and redesigns logos, creates publications, posters and power points.
With an extensive artistic background, including briefly attending Paier College of Art in Hamden, Conn., for a few semesters and then exhibiting his work at galleries, Sales enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2004. During his career, Sales always looked for the opportunity to produce more art than what had simply come across his desk.
This led him to more exposure, including creating the cover of the January-Feburary 2011 issue of Marines Magazine.
"It made for long nights -- very, very long nights," the Edgewater resident said. "I never painted myself into a corner, but long nights."
When Ford, a retired Marine colonel, was looking for an artist to produce an illustration of the Marines' newest attack and utility helicopters, the AH-1Z Super Cobra and the UH-1 "Venom" Super Huey, for the cover of the September 2012 issue, Sales' name came up.
"I reached out to several longtime Marine friends for recommended artists, and retired Marine Major Bob Jordan, a leadership instructor on the staff at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, suggested I ask Marine Sergeant Shawn Sales, a Defense Information School instructor with a strong knowledge of the Marine Corps and a keen eye for detail, to come up with a concept illustration," Ford said. "Sales submitted a concept drawing as did a couple of others and it was clearly obvious that he was the man to create our September cover."
Sales said one of his main objectives in creating the cover was displaying the skills of the Marines in his field.
"I just wanted to make sure that I was showcasing what 4612s [Combat Camera production specialist] can do with hopes that other people would be tasked with these things," he said.
The graphite illustration, which depicts a ground Marine and the helicopters above, took Sales roughly 10 hours to complete.
"I want the details of each image I create to be exact, down to less than an eighth of an inch," he said. "I work the graphite so that as your eye moves across the image each value helps the image come together as a whole. With each new project I encounter, I attempt to learn something from it and to push myself to make it better than the last. I believe my determinations has made me the artist I am today."
As part of the United States Marine Corps Division of Public Affairs and U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association awards program, Sales was awarded the Thomas P. Bartlett Award for the best cover award after being judged by the Leatherneck staff.
"Most people like to be acknowledged for their hard work and many artists like their work to be seen," Sales said. "I was honored to not only be acknowledged but to be seen by so many who support the Marine Corps."
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