GREEN THUMB

I know this isn't a monster, but I thought it would be interesting to see my process for a larger piece. This is the cover for the anniversary edition of Tom Cardamone's novella Green Thumb that will be published by Lethe Press. I'll walk you through the process from sketches to finish, with some asides along the way. Since Instagram is slowly dying, I thought I'd move even more of my posting over to this blog. I hope you like this because there'll be more of it!

First off, here's the original cover for the 2012 edition (designed by Alex Jeffers) and a summary of the novella.

"Mutability blooms in the Florida Keys after the Red War. The genie boxes created King Pelicans with single human hands to rule the ruins of half-drowned Miami…and other, stranger persons. Slavers roam the deep waters offshore, taking captives to feed the voracious Kudzu Army and the human aqueduct bearing fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. On the last stretch of the Overseas Highway still standing, an albino seeress prophesies: “You will reach for the sun while staying rooted to the ground. But I fear your shadow will be much too long.” Misunderstanding time, Leaf has lived for decades alone in a collapsing Victorian house on a desolate sandy key, feeding on sunlight and dew. When at last he meets a boy like—but so unlike!—himself, Leaf’s startling journey begins. A post-apocalyptic, psychoactive pastorale, Green Thumb will pollinate your mind and wind its way into your heart like kudzu."

My prompt from the publisher was: Leaf on a raft in the water in the top half, then the water and creatures below in the bottom half. The general layout for my sketch was inspired by the Alphonse Mucha Moët & Chandon ad. I love Mucha's work. I've been to the Mucha museum in Prague twice and was lucky enough to see The Slav Epic, his series of MASSIVE paintings, in the National Gallery Prague in 2012 (below is a pic of me standing in front of "The Celebration of Svantovit" from that series).

 

I was also really inspired by a grave (I'm a massive taphophile for those that don't know) I saw in Boston recently. The monuments in St. Michael's cemetery are known for their portraiture. This one depicts a young man drowning as he falls out of his canoe. I loved the gesture and wanted to incorporate it into my cover. You'll also find a reference photo I took of myself (blurred for decency haha) to get a more fitting gesture inspired by the monument.

 

From there we get into the actual meat of the process; My dumb-ass thumbnails! They tend to be extremely loose scribbles simply there to prove I have an idea and a general layout in mind. You can see the difference in detail between the sketch and the pencil drawing below. Besides that, I also noticed the side panels with the kudzu were off balance so I had them go further up the page.

The next step was inking (left) and the flat color (right). A few fish move around or disappear as this process goes on because I was fussing with the balance.

After that I masked the different parts of the cover so I could add layers to push things back in space or add color washes etc. I also added the gold borders to each panel. The next step is the longest, most labor intensive (though meditative) part of that process and that's the rendering.

The final two steps are the various layers of atmospheric perspective and color washes (left) and the text and background pattern (right).

So, that's it. My full process. I hope you enjoyed seeing how much work goes into each cover and my thought process/the inspiration behind them. I'll be doing more of these posts since I have a bunch of cover commissions on deck.