“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