This next cover is something I'm VERY excited about. I was asked to draw 10 monsters inspired by the work of Philip Fracassi that will be accompanied by an essay by the author! This is another Lethe Press project and you can actually preorder it here!

I had also begun to work out how I wanted the text to look. I had an old W.W. Denslow illustrated edition of The Wizard Of Oz in mind (though the end result is pretty different). Side note: I've been to visit Denslow's grave at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla NY!
After that it was time to ink. You can see the cleaned scan on the left. I actually drew the wood bark texture on the tree and his branch "teeth" separately so they'd be easier to manipulate. After that I added all the flat color and the lines for each panel.

Next, I masked off all the various parts so that I could add atmosphere and/or color washes to push things back or make them stand out. Then the long but meditative process or rendering!

at Lethe Press!