“Twenty Gold Falcons” Book Jacket

The middle-grade novel, “Twenty Gold Falcons”, by Amy Gordon, is a fun read with lots of unusual characters and plot twists. A spunky twelve-year old girl and her two friends search for lost gold coins, and my art director, Claire Counihan, said she wanted the cover to convey “the thrill of the search”. There were many visual themes running through the book–gold coins, old clocks, opera, sumptuous wealth, along with actual falcons. There is also a scene with a flashlight, and I felt that depicting the protagonist shining a flashlight would be the best way to show the idea of a search.

Below are the sketches in the order I did them. Since I love birds, I wanted to include the image of a falcon along with the character shining the light (first sketch), but the concensus was that the image was confusing, so I replaced the falcon with “hidden” gold coins (second sketch). This was an improvement, but Claire suggested I make the character crawling towards to add drama, which seemed to do the trick (final revised sketch) . I also could not resist adding some red velvet curtains to suggest both wealth and the opera. Special thanks to Grace, my fine young model.



CLIENT: HOLIDAY HOUSE
ART DIRECTOR: CLAIRE COUNIHAN

Caregiver Support Illustration

I did this montage a couple of months ago, I just haven't had much time to post lately, which I guess is a good thing(!).

It has been well documented the difficult time wounded Iraq War vets have struggling with brain injuries and the psychological wounds of combat. The stress on their caregivers, usually parents and spouses, has received somewhat less attention. This illustration accompanied the transcript of a panel discussion addressing support services available for these caregivers. Special thanks to my friends and neighbors Eric and Pedreia for posing for this piece.

CLIENT: MILITARY OFFICER MAGAZINE
ART DIRECTOR: JILL AKERS

“Moon Over Manifest” Book Cover

The year is 1936, and the protagonist, Abilene Tucker, is in most ways a typical eleven year-old girl in Moon Over Manifest, the middle-grade debut novel by Clare Vanderpool. What is unusual is that Abilene’s single-parent father is a hobo, and as the story begins, she has spent the last several years of her childhood happily riding the rails with him.

For the cover, art director Vikki Sheatsley asked for a shot of Abilene walking down the Kansas railroad tracks. The hardest part was finding the right model (thank you, Kate!) and setting. The most labor-intensive task was aging the overalls. The rest pretty much took care of itself.

CLIENT: RANDOM HOUSE
ART DIRECTOR: VIKKI SHEATSLEY

NY Times “House Of Dreams” Illustration

Apparently, trying to buy the “house of your dreams” in this economic climate can lead to actual nightmares, and that is the subject of the article this illustration accompanied in the Home section of the NY Times. For me, subject matter does not get any better than this, so I really tried to have fun with it. The final montage was created by combining a photograph of the “sleeping” model with a table top set I created, along with some images from my archives for the background. Below are the rough sketches I originally presented.

ART DIRECTOR: KEN McFARLIN
CLIENT: NEW YORK TIMES

"A Very Cold War" illustration

So it turns out that the U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Russia are all vying for property rights to oil reserves in the Arctic Circle. Hence the title of the feature this illustration accompanied, “A Very Cold War”. The idea of divvying up an “arctic pie” seemed somewhat obvious but irresistible to me. The most fun was making the frosted window treatment by mixing beer and epsom salts, details of which can be found on many how-to sites. Okay, so the studio smelled like a brewery for a few days, but it passes. Below are the two rough sketches presented.

CLIENT: MILITARY OFFICER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
ART DIRECTOR: LYNNE WOYCHIK

Tech Survey Illustrations for Internal Auditor

Below is a series of four illustrations for the Technology/Software issue of Internal Auditor Magazine. The biggest challenge in these kinds of jobs is to present very familiar themes and relatively dry content in a fresh way. I often respond by marrying organic symbols and images to the dry material, in this case different kinds of birds and a handmade “data” globe. Below the illustrations are the two sets of sketches presented, including an alternate set with a “flower” theme.

CLIENT: INSTITUTE OF INTERNAL AUDITORS/YACINSKI DESIGN
ART DIRECTOR: JOSEPH YACINSKI

Unpublished Cover: The Cross Gardener

Another one that got away, and alas, will not see the light of Amazon, at least not in this guise. The Cross Gardener, by Jason F. Wright, interweaves themes of loss, grief, and healing as a young father struggles to deal with the sudden death of his beloved wife. Designer Annette Fiore-DeFex requested a bucolic image with a picket fence, some vegetation, and possibly a path. Above are two of the comps presented.

CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: ANNETTE FIORE-DeFEX

“Cartagena Paper Girl” Book Cover Illustration

The Cartagena Paper Girl, by Iris Gomez, explores the themes of immigrant Latino culture, family relations, and mental illness, set against the backdrop of 1970's Miami. In the story, the teenage daughter, Gabi, struggles to hold her family together as her once stable father, Roberto, descends helplessly into madness.

Art director Brigid Pearson requested an image of Gabi swinging around the family's backyard Mango tree, fading into a background texture of classified want-ads, which her father repeatedly forces Gabi to scour.

I think I must have searched out and photographed just about every Mango tree in Sarasota, and I never did find the perfect one, so in the end I had to make a composite of many, many Mango trees, which is what you see here. Fortunately, the want-ads and the young woman were easier to find.

CLIENT: GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
ART DIRECTOR: BRIGID PEARSON

“Day of the Pelican” Book Jacket Illustration

The Day of the Pelican is another great read for young people. Written by Katherine Peterson, author of Bridge To Terabithia, the story recounts the difficult journey of a family from war-torn Kosovo to America, as told through the eyes of the adolescent daughter. An old framed family photograph, a prized keepsake, is burned in the senseless destruction and becomes a prominent symbol in the story. Above is the final cover, below are the original comps I presented. The photographs used are from my archives.



CLIENT: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
ART DIRECTOR: SHEILA SMALLWOOD

“Under A Red Sky” Book Jacket

Anyone familiar with my work can't help but notice the recurring frame motif. This is probably the influence of Joseph Cornell, one of my favorite artists since I can remember. I have been making these little frames from balsa and basswood ever since a brief stint working in an architectural supply store many years ago.

For this moving young adult memoir, Under A Red Sky—Memoir of a Childhood In Communist Romania, by Haya Leah Molnar, the author provided me with lots of great black and white photographs taken by her father, a cinematographer. A collage of weathered frames seemed like a natural solution.

Above is the finished artwork, below are two alternate comps presented.




CLIENT: FARRAR, STRAUS, & GIROUX
ART DIRECTOR: JAY COLVIN

“Viney’s Mountain” Outtakes

These are from the session with the model for the On Viney's Mountain book cover.

Lily Prints

I am working on a series of montages based on photographs I recently shot of some lilies. Here are the first four:

One That Got Away: “The Last Song” Book Jacket

I don’t normally get calls for mass-market titles, so it was a bit of a disappointment when this cover for best-selling author, Nicholas Sparks, didn't work out. Well, apparently they are still using the torn-edged paper panel with the faded music for the title type, so I guess it is not a total loss. The Last Song (the title may change) is the story of a young woman who falls in love for the first time while spending the summer with her estranged, (secretly) dying father, who lives on the North Carolina shore. No explicit imagery for the cover, just something beautiful and beachy. I am told the author liked these comps, but felt they were not quite consistent with the cleaner look normally associated with his titles. Hard to argue with that.





CLIENT: GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
ART DIRECTORS: ANNE TWOMEY, FLAG TONUZI

"Crazy School" Book Jacket Illustration

I had bought these butterflies online a couple of years ago, thinking they would soon start showing up in my work, but instead they just sat there on the wall. So I was happy to get a call from Brigid Pearson at Grand Central Publishing, requesting a butterfly image for the cover of the novel, The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read.

In this comic drama, the gates to the Santangelo Academy for Emotionally Disturbed Teenagers are adorned with a wrought-iron butterfly. Above is the finished cover (type design by Brigid Pearson), and below are the comps I presented initially.

CLIENT: GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
ART DIRECTOR: BRIGID PEARSON

“On Viney’s Mountain” Book Jacket

On Viney’s Mountain, a young adult novel by Joan Donaldson, is the story of a young woman's coming of age in late nineteenth century Tennessee.

The art director asked for an image of the character in her environment. Due to logistical limitations, photographing the model in the actual setting was not possible. To get around this, in the past I have either constructed a diarama, such as in Snow Angels; or, I have created a virtual environment in Photoshop from personal photos as in Crossing Stones. In either case, the figure is photographed separately, attempting to match the lighting as closely as possible, then stripped in on the computer.

In this case, I decided to create the environment in Photoshop from personal photos, because I had some images of trees I really liked. The problem was that I ended up having to shoot the model in her apartment because it was about 10 degrees outside, and the text demanded she be barefoot. So, despite my best efforts, I ended up with the dreaded inconsistency in lighting, where the lighting on the model does not quite match the lighting on the environment. This gives the somewhat odd effect that she is walking across a stage set, rather than the actual environment, though I still like the image.

Below are the original concept sketches submitted.

CLIENT: HOLIDAY HOUSE
ART DIRECTOR: CLAIRE COUNIHAN

“Age 14” Book Cover

In the young adult novel, Age 14, by Geert Spillebeen, a fourteen year-old working class Irish boy impersonates his older brother to enlist in the army in World War I. Before long, he is sent to the front lines in Belgium, where the nightmarish reality of life (and death) in the trenches quickly obliterates any romantic fantasies of military glory.

Below are the initial sketches shown. The client chose the last sketch, with the only request being to change the helmets to hats. The author pointed out that at the time of story, 1915, the soldiers were not yet wearing helmets. It was only after huge numbers of shrapnel head injuries occurred early in the war, that helmets were then provided. Thanks to the excellent reference provided by the author, I was able to closely approximate the exact uniform the Irish soldiers wore.





CLIENT: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
ART DIRECTOR: SCOTT MAGOON

“For God And Country” Book Jacket

The novel, For God And Country, by Jerome Prescott, is set in present day war-torn Iraq, where a gallant and dedicated American army chaplain ministers to battle weary soldiers. Much of the chaplain’s time, though, is spent alternately praying and dodging bullets. Above is the finished artwork, and below are the sketches. I like to challenge myself, but still felt lucky they chose the 2nd sketch, which was by far the easiest to produce.



CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: RITA FRANGIE

“Seen The Glory” final cover

This is the final approved version of the cover discussed in the December 9, 2008 post. Below are the various solutions proposed previously. The author pointed out that I had placed the gun on the wrong shoulder, and also that the hammer mechanism on the musket was historically inaccurate (oh, you experts). With the author's helpful reference, I replaced the hammer, and we flopped the photo to get the gun on the proper shoulder (thus, I also had to place the hammer on the other side of the musket).



CLIENT: SIMON & SCHUSTER
ART DIRECTOR: MICHAEL ACCORDINO

“Second Nature” Book Jacket

In Alice Hoffman’s novel, Second Nature, a woman falls in love with a man who has been raised by wolves. Published several years ago in hardback, this cover is for the paperback edition.

Berkley Books art director, Lesley Worrell, asked for an image that would suggest the romantic, whimsical aspects of the book. Below are the initial pencil roughs.



After choosing sketch D, the image below was my first crack at the finish. Although I felt pretty good about the image, which I created largely from images in my archives, Lesley felt strongly the woman appeared too sad, and also asked for much more color, along with more conventional “forest” foliage. Given the changes requested, I felt the only way to fix the problem was really to start again from scratch., so that is what I did, with a new model and different foliage. At top is the final approved piece.



CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: LESLEY WORRELL