Hollow Earth

I'm happy to post my latest cover for Simon & Schuster, a full wraparound for the novel Hollow Earth, by John and Carol E. Barrowman.

The book is about the adventures of two twins who possess the ability to draw things from their imagination into life. It was a really inspiring concept that provided plenty of opportunities for great visuals and was a really fun read.

It was really nice to have quite a bit of creative input on this cover and I always love working with wraparound compositions. The long aspect ratio is so great for storytelling and I love the challenge of crafting an image that holds up on it's own yet still acts as a strong foundation for the jacket design.

Jessica Handelmann at S&S was so great to work with and designed an excellent jacket with a very elegant and modern feel. A big thank you goes out to her and all the good people at Simon and Schuster.

Storm God Mask

Just something fun and mellow in between some bigger projects...

Dead City Cover

Last year, Simon & Schuster asked me if I was available to do a cover for this really fun middle grade novel called Dead City by James Ponti. As I read through the email and saw "Zombies" and "New York City" I got really excited and I jumped at the chance to work with them.
The designer suggested a couple of concepts to start with and I sketched up a few really quick thumbnails...

They really liked dark alley idea with the zombie hand coming up through the manhole, which was one of my favorites too. The book has an element of humour to it and I thought it was kind of a witty way to integrate the zombie and New York themes nicely. I also really liked how the low angle makes the main character, a 13 year old girl by the name of Molly, look more powerful than her size would otherwise suggest. From here I got some direction on a lighting style and colour palette and set to work on the final.

This was a super fun project to work on and I really like how the piece ended up. It was a great experience working with Lisa Vega at Simon & Schuster and I love what she did with the cover design. The book is scheduled for an October 2012 release and I can't wait to see it in print.

Guide Of Souls

This character is a Psychopomp or "Guide of Souls" - a mythic figure responsible for providing souls with safe passage to the afterlife. In Jungian terms, the psychopomp acts as a mediator between the conscious and unconscious realms. I thought developing a character based on that idea would be a great way to start visualizing a new world that I'm developing.

The basic idea of this project is to re-interpret the archetypes of the Monomyth from the mythic imagination of a people that have survived ages after our current civilization has collapsed. If humanity reverted to primal levels of culture and reason and mythology regained it's necessity to the human psyche, what would the myths be? How would a neo-primal culture interpret mythical archetypes in a post-collapse world? What would their creation myths be? What would their heroic myths be? What mysteries of existence would their myths express? What stories would they tell to explain the remnants of our decaying civilization?

These are the things floating around in my head to inspire me going forward with this and this Guide of Souls will hopefully help lead me to the unconscious realms where the creativity for this new project lies.

Pretty heady talk for what's basically a proof of concept.

Fox & Phoenix Released

Just a quick post to mention that Fox & Phoenix was released today! The cover illustration was a pleasure to do. Beth Bernobich crafted a richly detailed and inspiring world with compelling, complex characters and a unique vision of magic powered technology that hooked me from the beginning. The fine folks at Viking Press did an amazing job on the jacket design and it presents the illustration very nicely. It's a brilliant book all around and I'm proud to have been a part of it!



I'd hate to post without some art, so here's a little sketch from the other night. I'm still following random inspirations and procrastinating settling in to long term projects!

New Life

Whoa, Fall already?!

I've been working on a few projects over the summer...some graphics, a picture book and sketching/conceptualizing for a new body of personal work. It's about time for an update so I dusted off an old sketch and spent a few nights on it.



Before I get too dug in to some of the long term projects I'll be working on over the winter, there may be a few more of these fun pieces coming...

Wereworld Cover

Here’s my latest book cover for the North American hardcover release of “Wereworld”, an awesome novel written by Curtis Jobling and published by Viking Press. I’ve been anxious to post this for a while and since it’s now available on Amazon and cropping up here and there, I thought I’d put it up!

I really enjoyed the creative process on this, particularly since the Art Director wanted to develop a new look for the North American release. He wanted something more graphic and atmospheric. I also really enjoyed the wide composition the wraparound allowed for and there’s few things I enjoy painting more than a dark, foggy forest with a shadowy mythic creature and a hero thrown in for good measure!

The book will be on shelves in September and I enjoyed it cover to cover. Plenty of action, a richly detailed world, interesting characters and a story that hooked me from the beginning!

* Edit, August 10th, 2011 - Well, it looks like this won't be the published cover for the NA release of Wereworld after all. The AD let me know the publisher went with a different approach for the cover. This was still a great experience and the AD was happy with my work, so that's good...I'm just a bit disappointed that my work won't be out there on the shelves.