Book cover art - several titles
commissioned work - Odyssey Books
Below is a selection of book cover art that I produced for Odyssey Books, including:
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After the Bloodwood Staff by Laura E Goodin - this story self-consciously adopts, and then subverts, the tropes of Victorian adventure fiction, so the brief was to emulate those vintage book covers; think, 'Boys' own adventures' cover art. This cover called for faux-embossed borders, characters in action, a sense of place and an overall 'pre-loved' (vintage) feel.
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Cassandra by Kathryn Gossow - set in rural Queensland in the 1980's, high school-girl Cassie's ability to predict the future - sort of, sometimes - sets her apart from her peers. Shunned as 'weird', a lonely Cassie finally discovers a confidant, Athena, who helps her explore and hone her predictive abilities. But, trouble ensues. To reflect the book's main themes of psychic ability, loneliness and disjointed reality, I used an abstract art style for this cover.
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Mud and Glass by Laura E. Goodin - a satire of academia and a fable of resistance in the face of a nascent totalitarian regime, this is an adventure story where the geeky heroes battle equally geeky villains, and courage comes in the most unexpected forms. My cover art uses a comic book aesthetic to amp-up the adventure and satire elements; a look and feel that Laura thought would work well. The dominant purple and yellow is, of course, a little nod to early Phantom comics.
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Salvage by Martin Rodoreda - this book is set in a world where excessive mining, human pollution and war have left the earth devastated and virtually uninhabitable. I layered three drawings - a crumbling cityscape, the cracked earth and the lead character, Silver - to create the cover.
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