© Subterranean Press
Artist insight Book cover
August 2017^111
S
ubterranean Press
contacted me to create
full-cover dust jackets for
a new and limited edition
of Robin Hobb’s Farseer
trilogy. In reply to my query about
a cover brief, the publisher replied
that there was none: I had free rein
to do as I wished.
Naturally, this sounded like a
dream commission, but of course it
meant making many decisions above
and beyond the actual subject matter:
layout, placement of titles, fonts and
more. I was intent on installing two
things: a proximity to the characters,
and a depiction of wide landscapes. I
decided that the best way to avoid
“posing” characters – equivalent to
a modern-day snapshot taken in
front of a tourist-friendly vista – was
to make use of vignettes.I did all three sketches at once and
sent them off. These were pencil
scribbles, scanned and rendered in
sepia with white highlights, which is
an efficient way of adding focus and
depth. I was also aware that hiding
the dragon’s head behind the vignette
was a bit risky, and considered trying
to shift it, but in the end it stayed
where it was. Approval came back
from both publisher and author with
no revisions, so I got going on the
originals themselves straight away.
The main image was done
separately from the vignette. It’s never
a good idea to paint one image over
another unless there’s some purely
pictorial or decorative reason for
doing so. Should the smaller image
need to be moved, it’s best to have it
as a separate original. Equally, for
sub-rights use, a third party just
might want to licence the main image
without the vignette.
John is a full-time illustrator
and concept artist, who
helped shape the look of the
Lord of the Rings and The
Hobbit film trilogies. You can discover
more of his art at http://www.john-howe.com.