Concept art
I spoke with my cover artist, Betsy, today to see if she minded me posting her concept art for my cover.
She said to go for it! So here goes, but please keep a few things in mind:
1- These are very rough concept sketches, intended to explore layout and ideas.
2- They are very small (thumbnails)
3- They were taken with an iPhone camera, so not the best quality, but you’ll get the idea.
4- These drawings belong to Betsy – any use of them must be done with her explicit permission first.
Now for Betsy’s sketches/concepts (very mild book spoilers in the text):
So here are some ideas I’ve got flying around. I really think we should focus on the tree. So many trilogies have important knives on the cover (…) I think you really have an interesting thing going with the tree.
Images that also resonated with me:
Morrigann’s fiddle
Faerie Ring the rocks where Morrigann met Story.
The cave with the portal – 1 aspen tree at the mouth
The painting of the tree in the cave
The fairy lights
Morrigann’s wooden throne
I don’t want to pull too much imagery from the second half of the book, because there’s nothing I hate more than reading a story and all I can think about is how the cover art depicts a scene that hasn’t happened yet.
Thumbnail 1:
Wraparound cover. Includes the tree on the spine, overlapping to front & back covers. On the back on the left is the cave with the aspen tree. On the cover you’ve got Morrigann’s fiddle leaning up against the rock he kept sitting on. That swirl you see starting at the bottom left cover and curling around the front up to the title is just a path the fairy lights would take. The fairies themselves would have no distinct character faces, just a few lines and sparkly lights.
Thumbnail 2:
More art Nouveau graphics. Cover: Tree front and center, but a less literal depiction; more graphic and stylized. Back: Some plant imagery, but the main focus would be the fiddle on one side and the knife on the other. This is not a wraparound cover.
Thumbnail 3:
Wraparound cover. One side has the dead tree with Morrigann’s empty throne sitting in front of it and the fiddle leaning against the chair. The other side would be the living tree with various plants and flowers and possibly fairy lights. I don’t know which side I like more. I kind of like the dead tree side! It’s eerie and interesting and would fill the front better.
Thumbnail 4:
Wraparound cover. Very much like #3, except the tree is split into two and appears on the opposite sides. Background fill would either be an open landscape or more trees like in the Kay Neilsen illustration I sent a while back.
~~~~~
I liked all the concepts, but my favorite was almost immediately #3. Turned out it was Kelli & Betsy’s favorites too – so number 3 it was!
We went back and forth on a few things, such as switching the dead/living tree sides and adding a dash of pixies flying by along with the wind blowing around some falling petals on the living side of the tree.
A day later I received this from Betsy & I immediately approved it. Can’t wait to see the final inked & colored version!
Here’s the really rough full sketch. (Without the fiddle. I forgot to draw it before I took the pictures!)
Front
Back
The whole cover
*EXCITED*