4
Setting up the document
Though I’d had a rough idea at the outset of the
physical dimensions of my illustration, now is the time
to lay that out. I make semi-transparent black borders
to show the area that will be the trimmed “bleed” in
printing, which will also enable me to see only the front
cover while composing the illustration. Unlike an
interior spread illustration, a wrap jacket image will
never actually be seen in its horizontal state.3
Mining supporting imagery
I own a huge number of royalty-free stock photos on CDs purchased over my
career, but nowadays online resources are affordable, so I’ll often buy images there
too for specific commissions. I search both these sources for suitable raw materials
to build my illustration at this point in my process, and throughout, as needed.1
Defining the task and approach
The image here is for a popular novel series I had done three prior covers for,
which concluded a few years ago. The author commissioned it for a new instalment
set within the series timeline. I talk with the author, and we swap some images and
decide I’d illustrate the protagonist, a weather wizard of sorts, as a single figure
against a volcanic landscape. My approach here is tailored to that end, and is
outlined here in a linear step-by-step, which in practice is far more cyclical.2
Choosing the basic pose
I shoot a series of “leaping” model photographs
from angles I thought give a weightless or ascending
feeling. I choose the best one for gesture and kinetic
motion, looking for a sweep of the figure but keeping the
energy directed onto, not off, the page. The pose will
develop, but not yet.80 August 2017
Workshops