Designing the cover for Brandon Barrows' new book

I'm excited by my recent involvement with Dunhams Manor Press, and I've committed to illustrating ten limited-edition hardcovers to be published by them in 2016. Working on the cover for Jon Padgett's The Infusorium earlier this year was a true learning experience, and brain-storming with Jon and editor/publisher Jordan Krall produced a stack of sketches. My cover illustration for Brandon Barrows' book, The Castle-Town Tragedy and Other Stories, resulted in a similar array of art as I bounced ideas off the author, seeing which resonated with him. Since it's my hope to use this blog as a way to show the development and process behind the various projects I'm in, I thought Barrows' book would be an excellent place to start, since it will be the first book released, likely by November 2015.

Pages from my sketchbook done as I read Barrows' manuscript. He singled out an image on the second page for me to work on.

As I read the manuscript, I looked for common themes or particular scenes that would make an exciting cover, and I knew immediately it had to be Carnacki's supernatural encounter of the first story. Even before I had finished reading, I was sketching the ghost outside the castle's gate, using different angles to make for an interesting design.

White pencil on black paper to simulate a scratchboard look.

The next step was to elaborate upon the simple sketch by making larger and more detailed drawings on black paper that would resemble the look of a scratchboard. Both the author and editor liked the image on the above left, which looked down on a figure pleading to the heavens for justice.

sketchbook pages

 

final sketch and aborted cover scratchboard

I continued to work on the pose and background ideas such as the gate and Carnacki's electric pentacle, and when I thought I had everything in place, I drew a pencil sketch the same size as the 8x10" scratchboard. This sketch was used as the scratch template, which I transferred to the scratchboard as faithfully as possible. Once free of the paper, though, I'm free to elaborate with fine detail and shading as I scratch away the black surface with a nib. I was content with the stylized figure, the gate, and the pentacle on the cobblestone street, but I became unhappy with the electricity that surrounded the spirit, and the figure didn't seem dynamic or creepy enough to merit belonging on a cover of a horror book. It simply didn't demand attention. I decided to do another scratchboard with a new drawing, and left the original to serve as an interior illustration.

reworked drawings and the second scratchboard illustration

I spent a few days working on the features, contorting my own face and twisting my limbs in the mirror, before my second attempt, and this time I was better prepared. I simplified the design by removing background ornamentation and the wires of Carnacki's electric pentacle, and used the pentagram itself as a design, tying the blood on the hands with the spilled blood on the stones. With the trappings of science removed, the image just screamed of the occult. As a Carnacki the Ghost-Finder book should!

Font variations

The second scratchboard was then painted with a limited palette of watercolors, and after it dried for twenty-four hours, I went back and scratched some color out for highlights- on the bricks, on the bloody hands, on the ghost, and in the background fog. Occult symbols were added to the pentagram design, too. I put together a few different covers in Photoshop that used different fonts, each with their own feel, and I soon abandoned my idea of red lettering for white, which worked with all the highlights, tying the whole cover together.

Looking through the progression of art and ideas, there's a big leap between the initial sketches and finished product, where the scratchboard's details allow for a great degree of realism and exaggeration, and in doing so, I try to conceive of a book that would capture my eye on the shelf (or the internet, these days), one that looks both beautiful and dangerous, and I set out to make that book real with a cover that suits the author's taste and intent, too.

Dunhams Manor Press is printing only about 125 copies of The Castle-Town Tragedy and Other Stories by Brandon Barrows and the other books in their 2016 hardcover series, and they've put together a subscription plan that will save readers money, but this plan is limited to only twenty-five subscribers. As seen above, with all the art generated by a single cover alone, there's plenty of original drawings that can be made available to collectors, so these twenty-five subscribers will also receive art from one of the books. It's satisfying to think some of these sketches won't just sit around my studio, that they'll find a home in someone's Dunhams Manor collection. Information about this series and subscriptions can be found on Dunhams Manor Press' blog and on Dynatox Ministries' storefront.

Whew... that was work. I'll try to post more behind-the-scenes work as I'm able. Next Dunhams Manor hardcover to be illustrated: Jack Werrett, The Flood Man, by Rebecca Lloyd!