Boom. Thunderbird. Fourth in Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series. Soaring onto shelves next year.
Original Firestarter painting –
Boom. Thunderbird. Fourth in Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series. Soaring onto shelves next year.
Original Firestarter painting –
Recently released covers for Cynthia Voigt’s Kingdom series from Atheneum Books.
Included below the final artwork are my concept sketches, submitted after reading the books. I always ask for manuscripts so that I can create concepts based on the story itself and not an art director’s impression of what they think it’s about. I typically push to come up with 50-60 cover ideas and submit around 5.
Tale of Oriel
Sketch – the story of a kid determined to make his fortune and his friend on an adventure to find the fabled Kingdom. Editors had me remove the friend and place Oriel on a boat.
Tale of Gwyn
Sketch – this story about a masked vigilante and a girl who decides to embody his mission.
Tale of Elske
Sketch – the main character in the story overcomes her past with the brutal Wolfer tribe. I was really excited about capturing both her defiant expression juxtaposed with the giant wolf silhouette. Editors pushed for colorization. I’m not sure the wolf is as clear with her being a solid form.
Tale of Birle
My artwork was killed and will not be published with the set.
Sketches – my first presentation of ideas included the main characters on water, which fit the story well, but the editors had insisted Oriel be on a boat, so didn’t want to repeat it.
Previous title was On Fortune’s Wheel, so presented options in keeping with the rise and fall of the characters.
Approved sketch – originally the couple was on the run, which made more sense for the story than having them go for a lovely stroll in the woods, as was revised for the final.
I presented an initial idea of connecting the four covers visually. This ended up becoming a portrait of The Kingdom along the spines.
This was a trying year-long project. While the experience was not positive, I am enjoying the other series that have been keeping me busy. I look forward to doing more good work for good publishers.
Here’s a memorial to the projects that died. While I am grateful for and appreciative of the work I do that makes it out into the world, it does happen that projects sometime reach an untimely death. Here are several pieces that I put thought and effort into, but in the end will remain mostly unseen.
An advertising agency hired me to recreate the Blue Moon Beer label
A company working with the New York Aquarium asked me to paint sample sharks for an exhibition. Nothing came of it.
A publisher hired me to do an illustrated version of A Wizard of Earthsea. The art director and author like the work, but the author imagined details to look different. I told her I could only work from the text, not her imagination. The project ended. I declined payment.
Cover sketches for a young adult book that didn’t materialize. I was told the editors liked what I came up with but ended up wanting to go in a totally different direction. Not sure why they hired me in the first place.
Approved sketch for the fourth book in a series I’d been working on for a year.
The final artwork. A big problem with this and the other covers I did for them was that the art director and editors had wanted the images to be about one thing but they hadn’t bothered to read the books. So my convictions to honestly capture the narrative was always a losing battle.
Coming this spring, The Guns of Ivrea by Clifford Beal. I did the jacket artwork for this the first in a new series of adventure on the open seas, filled with privateers, mermen, magic monks, and mythic beasts. See more about the novel here.
Originally the book was titled Valdur – The Guns of Ivrea, for which I personally crafted the typography. I did this to be sure the religious thread of the story would be present on the cover, captured in the manuscript style lettering. But the editors decided to knock off Valdur and with it my ornamentation, seen here-
In any event, it’s a captivating novel that I’m proud to have worked on. I’m looking forward to getting started on the next in the series.
Delighted that these two pieces have been selected for inclusion in the next Infected By Art Book. There’s a lot of great work this year, including many talented friends.
Penguin Random House in Spain licensed my artwork for the cover of the third in their sci fi anthology series, Terra Nova.
In promotion of Fat & Bones, the folks at Lerner Books asked me a couple of questions about my influences, favorite lines, and advice to the aspiring. Read the interview here.
Interview with Larissa Theule, author of Fat & Bones, discusses her motivations and inspirations behind the story’s cruelty, tenderness, and the charmingly ridiculous.
Here’s a video trailer for Fat & Bones and Other Stories, coming out in October from Lerner Books :D
Studies and character development for another book cover I’m working on this summer. Publishing date TBD.