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