thunderbird: illustrated.

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a presentation on how I do my job. After I gave a rather lack luster Power Point presentation, there were questions from those who attended.

Q: Where do your ideas come from and how do they evolve?
A: Like most things in my life, I make it up as I go along. I trust who I work with and hope for the best.

Lucky for me I make friends easily.

While I am still working on the most effective process, I had a great time with one of Winter 2014's lead titles. In what proves to be a team effort on how a cover is designed: An illustrated evolution of Kelley Armstrong's upcoming book, SEA OF SHADOWS.

Summary:

Twin sisters Moria and Ashyn were marked at birth to become the Keeper and the Seeker of Edgewood beginning with their sixteenth birthday. Trained in fighting and in the secret rites of the spirits, they lead an annual trip into the Forest of the Dead, where the veil between the living world and the beyond is thinnest, and pay respect to the spirits who have passed. 

Idea #1: Well we have to have a forest.

Forest inspirations

Idea #2: What if one of the animals from the story emerged from that forest, like an icon?

Icon inspirations

Idea #3: Let's make this animal icon out of leaves . . . Who can do that?

Rhythm and Hughes has a bottomless bucket of talent. After a few rounds of sketches, notes from the author of what a thunderbird looks like, and we land on this:

Rhythm and Hughes gives us the Thunderbird

Idea #4: Type treatment should look grown up, I would love for an adult to want to pick this novel up.

Type treatments

Smack 'em all together:

Sea of Shadows goes on sale this April