This is the first time I’ve illustrated fully my own fantasy cover*, and I have to admit that I had a blast doing it!
Growing up, I wanted to be a 2D animation artist, so over the years, I’ve subscribed to a LOT of art courses (though most of them I have yet to finish–my to-do list is immense at this stage). My struggle has always been that I want things to look exactly like what I have in my head, and if I don’t get there fast, I feel like a total failure. Except…
Except that, in reality, there should be no room for such feelings. Because to get to their fabulous results, even when they’re already at the height of their career, and years spent refining their craft, artists can still spend a tremendous amount of time and effort creating their work. And, from what I’ve read and heard, all go through a “messy middle” phase. Which is, funnily enough, exactly what happens when writing stories. It’s that stage when things look muddy, a mess, like you don’t know what you’re doing, and what’s going to come out of this is a big pile of 💩.
The key is to remain patient. To keep on forging forward. To trust your instincts. To keep on playing around (and I insist on this last point, because this is most definitely where I fail the most, but it’s where the magic happens: I might have a predefined idea in my head, but it’s while playing around that I come up with the extra detail or nuance that I feel really makes the piece!). And then, before you know it, you’ve got yourself a piece of art, or a story, that you really enjoy (despite its flaws)!
When I started working on The Godstone Curse, the short story was actually named Concrete Rose. It’s a title I’ve had trotting around in my head for years, inspired by two things: the hardy flowers I come across that bloom beautifully, despite having grown in between the sidewalks’ pavement cracks, and the song “Concrete Road” in Whispers of the Heart**, one of my favorite Ghibli films (IYKYK). It took me a very long while to finish. Over a couple of years. I kept starting it, then stopping, not satisfied with how it was even starting (so without even getting to the muddy middle).
But this year, I switched my mindset about it, figuring out it would “just” be a fun story to share with my newsletter. But as I wrote it, I ended up having so much fun, that I ended up deciding, after finishing it, to have it become the prologue to a future book series (which I’m also working on now). So when it came to creating a cover for the tale, I decided to take the same spirit I’d had writing it (the last iteration).
It was a lot of painstaking work, as I tried different techniques, and different compositions, done in the late hours of the night after long work days at the day job. But I was also enjoying seeing my work slowly come together. I’d also decided to create the lettering for the main title itself (Concrete Rose), a Gothic style with an Alessa flourish to it (imho). I’d tested out color schemes… Was getting ready to put the book together so I could share it with my newsletter, when…
…a friend of mine came back saying there was already a movie of the same name (with a poster that looked eerily similar to what I’d concocted on my end), and a book, too!
Yeah. My fault for not checking ahead of time.
So I ended up renaming it The Godstone Curse (yes, I do believe I like stories with curses in them😅), redid the main title (still by hand), and was finally able to share my story. But, most importantly for me, I learned to trust the process more.
*I have done a YA Fantasy cover before, but I’d purchased images online to then put together into a cover after. Because of the advent of genAI, since I now have no idea what has been produced with or without that tool, I want to play it safe. Hence why I chose to illustrate my own (the only thing that I didn’t make myself, was the font used for the series title at the top + my author name).
**Which is itself totally inspired by the wonderful song Country Road by John Denver.