The vibrant drama of the World Cup, illustrated

(Image credit: Simon Prades)

last updated 8 January 2015

The World Cup isn't a time for multitasking. Warm, flat beers are remembered and sipped during half time. Bathroom breaks are scheduled for the game's end. In those crucial 90 minutes, often the only measurable productivity is the number of nails chewed down to their stubs.

Which makes illustrator Simón Prades' World Cup drawings all the more impressive. Not only is the half-German, half-Spaniard watching the games as an impassioned fan, but also as an artist eager to capture the tournament's defining plays with pen and ink.

In collaboration with The New Republic, Prades is illustrating moments of anguish and triumph on each game day for the duration of the World Cup. The sketches, completed over the course of two to five hours, are first done in ink, then scanned and colored digitally. When each day's drawing is complete, it joins the growing and vibrant timeline that is "Moment of the Match."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Prades' sketches, with their excited strokes and sprays of ink, capture the pulse-quickening movement of the games and are the perfect complement to your World Cup-watching obsession. Below are three illustrations, along with captions, by Prades. Head on over to The New Republic for more.

All images have been published with permission from the artist.

To see more of Simón Prades' work, check out his website. For updated "Moment of the Match" sketches, go to the New Republic.

Lauren Hansen produces The Weekâ€™s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.