"Woven" book cover

"Woven" by Michael R. Jensen & David R. King

I had eluded to a new project a few posts ago... well this was it! Woven co-authors Michael R. Jensen and David Powers King approached me to create an alternative book cover for their book. The illustration features the two main characters of the book- the princess and the ghost. They didn't want to use any convention of transparency with the ghost- and he seems very real to the princess, but I convinced them that a visual cue was needed... so he gradates out.

I wanted to create that classic YA fantasy feel- somewhat like traditional animation... "Disneyesque" in it's appearance. I liked the way it turned out.

I had severely limited time- so I had to turn to some quick techniques to deliver. I used a forest texture brush for the background, I drew the figures separately, scanned, and colorized in Photoshop.

There's quite a bit of head space- that's for the title.

As it were, the cover was offered to the publisher as an alternative to what their art department had conceived. While it was turned down- events with Michael's bio and the whirlwind of media coverage over the controversy ended the project. I fully support Michael Jensen and his decision to be true to himself and I fully agree that a work should be judged on it's own merits and content and not anything beyond that.

In the end it comes down to this: Keep moving forward, that's how winning is done!